Category: Auckland

Let there be light

Soothing pink light, that is.

We bought this Himalayan salt lamp, used but supposedly working, a few weeks ago. Alas, when we got it home, nothing. No mystical Pakistani ions, no allergy relief, no warm light. It did serve its actual purpose as a bookend, but we wanted more.

I finally got around to changing the bulb (a project made more difficult by an encrustation of salt…). Hey presto!

So far, we have to concur with this nice article about the actual value of having a salt lamp… it hasn’t cured any ailments yet but it’s a nice light in the early morning or late evening… and it totally keeps the books from falling over.

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The thrill of victory

Nothing says “big running race” like the massive lines at the porta-potties. And nothing says “Auckland is kind of a small town” like realizing how it has already become normal to encounter someone we recognize just about every time we leave the house (the guy in the black t-shirt goes to my same gym).

I ran my first organized race in a few years last Sunday, the annual Auckland Round the Bays. It’s the biggest running event in NZ, with over 25,000 participants. It passes near the house and goes along the beach, a road I know well. Pancake flat. Weather a little too warm, but windless and beautiful. All in all, near perfect conditions.

On the one hand, it was awesome to come in so close to the top… I ran exactly the race I wanted to, given my fitness level, and somehow beat even my stretch goal pace. But on the other, most of those participants were there as part of a corporate charity project and walked more than they ran.

(And for those of you who keep score, no, that’s not a 4:36 mile pace, it’s kilometers, and no, it isn’t a 10K, only 8.4.) (and no, it’s not lost on me that back in the day I completed a whole marathon at an identical pace)

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Netball

On Saturday we went to our first netball game, between the Northern Mystics and the Southern Steel. This marked a trifecta for me of sports I wouldn’t have likely seen in the States: rugby, cricket and now netball.

Rules-wise, it’s a lot like Ultimate Frisbee. Or it’s a lot like basketball with no dribbling.

Although the players are pros, it can’t be a very lucrative gig with only about 500-700 fans in the stands.

It was fun to watch… the passing and teamwork are beautiful. But the action is quite jerky… running the ball downcourt is great, but the action basically stops when it’s time to score.

But maybe the best part was Lee brought the Mystics sunglasses we fished out of the bay one night on a walk.

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Bowl me over

For our Friday drinks last week we deviated from the usual routine and went lawn bowling. I took the shot above because I thought the “Visitors Welcome” sign was too much like a Mormon church to pass up. It wasn’t until later that I noticed the defibrillator sign… but not surprising as the average age of a bowling club member must be in the high 130s.

It was a lot of fun and harder than it looks. Turns out the balls aren’t exactly round, so it’s all about making them hook in at the end. I enjoyed the conversation and the drinks more than the actual bowling. Which I think makes me an excellent candidate for membership… especially the drinks part.

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Cheaper Than Therapy

The sign might be true in the long run (sorry for that) but not in the moment when you’re shelling out for new kicks.

I signed up for a corporate team event at Auckland’s giant Around the Bays run next weekend, which meant I had to replace my aging shoes.

I’ve had chronic knee pain over the past few years, so I was primed to let the salesman talk me into the Brooks Bedlam… maybe the only shoe in the store more expensive than the ASICS Gel-Kayanos I’ve been running in for most of the last 15 years. We’ll see if a 4mm-shorter heel-toe drop makes a difference. Or if in fact I’m over 50 and heavier than I used to be.

I ran a few miles on that first day and they felt pretty good… so we’ll see how the weekend warrior does this weekend!

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Living Vi-car-iously

That, my friends, is a 1958 Mercedes 220S. It’s a nice-looking car, a model I didn’t know, and it happened to be parked up the street last weekend. We would look very fine, I said to Lee, driving down the road in a car like that.

Hmm, I continued, I wonder what something like that goes for. I mean, just for curiosity.

Well, it turns out there was one for sale by auction on TradeMe, and it further turned out the auction was ending in only a few hours.

When I first saw it, the bid was about $23,000. According to the listing, the for sale car is mostly rented out to bridal parties. The seller said it’s not especially original, not a show quality car at all, but clean and eminently drivable.

I spent the next few hours daydreaming. It was a lot of fun. But, as usual in these flights of automotive fancy, common sense prevailed.

I hope the new owner enjoys it in the years to come as much as I (and the 500+ others who followed this auction) did in those few hours.

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Lantern Festival 2019

Again this year we went to the Lantern Festival in the Auckland Domain. It seemed somehow less amazing than last time, and even more crowded. But still pretty neat…

The museum all lit up in Chinese colors

This pig has a lot of scary clown vibe

A scene from Madame White Snake, one of China’s four great folktales.

It’s not all folktales

I think that’s supposed to be net he’s casting upon the waters…

Dragons whose heads moved back and forth

Lanterns in the trees

After party

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On the farm

Tom’s family place sits on a pretty but relatively rugged stretch of coastline.

The family is engaged in a long process of subdivision by which each sibling will get a chunk to build on while the bulk of the land is going into a preservation trust.

Apparently it’s never been great farmland… currently it supports some cattle and a bunch of pine trees, now being harvested after 25 years of growing. All the land will be restored to native bush plantings, which means an aggressive anti-predator campaign.

Tom’s brother Guy runs the Tawapou native plant nursery on the property, which is a lovely place. They are very active in conservation of native species and there are some interesting stories about the rare/important plants.

Tom is building his holiday home on a bluff overlooking the sea. It has a unique semi-circular design, completely off the grid, and it will be stunning.

It was cloudy and windy, which spoiled our plans to go out to the Poor Knights Islands, but we had a fun day anyway… touring the farm, taking a couple of swims, tasting wines at the neighborhood winery.

And of course finishing with sausages on the grill.

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The Maul of Auckland

Construction continues on the big mall overhaul in Newmarket. This is the view from my office window… at least the new, taller, building will block the view of the freeway…

Supposedly the mall be open this year. Seems impossible but I don’t know… they have a lot of guys working on it.

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Stop Buggin’ Me

Two encased insects, two different stories…

The Venus flytrap totally does its job, but only after I stunned the fly with a flyswatter and placed it in the pouch. Not a scalable insect control strategy but very cool anyway.

And here, one of our last monarchs about to eclose… which is lepidopterist-speak for when they come out of the chrysalis.

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Happy New Year

Happy Year of the Earth-Pig!

(In an early recognition of the impending Chinese global takeover, I’m just calling it “New Year” instead of “Chinese New Year”)

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Pay Attention

Warnings and disclaimers have become so ubiquitous and so wordy that it’s all too easy to ignore most of them… stuff they’ll use to deny your insurance claim rather than stuff that actually keeps you safe.

But we paid attention to this sign at Browns Bay yesterday after some tourists were caught in a land slip over Christmas.

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