Monthly Archives: February 2015

Kayaking, New Zealand, Travel Planning

4. Auckland – Ohakune

Saturday, February 14: A little cloudy to begin with, but then sunny with some mountain clouds

Sue and Simon’s (airbnb, $90)

Early rising was no word for it. I had wanted to be up at 6:45 but was already awake at 6:30 so went and showered, then had a coffee, toasted a danish or whatever it was that Chinara had left for me on a plate on the kitchen table. Then it was time to try to get the case to close, and by 7:25 I was ready to go. Said goodbye to Chinara through the bedroom door. Have left a small cache of books behind in one of the drawers, so will have to remember to pick them up on the 27th.

Was at the bus stop in good time and could see from the timetable that there would have been a problem taking even one bus later (7:50) than envisaged (7:40) because it was delayed by a quarter of an hour, and because of the unusual intervals in the timetable, a later bus – even if it was on time – would have been touch-and-go for the long distance bus. Read more…

GPS Tracks, Kayaking, New Zealand, Photography, Topo Map, Tramping, Youtube Videos

3. Auckland, St Heliers: Rangitoto Sea Kayaking

Friday, February 13: Cloudy at first, clearing to light cloud with a bit of a southerly breeze

Chinara’s

Kayaking: 10.0 km
Tramping: 5.2 km

There wasn’t much sound from above, so at around 8:00 I went upstairs and the two were sleeping in. Couldn’t quite stomach breakfast and only had a coffee. Pretty soon the courier with my emergency equipment arrived which was audible because the guy had his radio playing loudly and I was able to intercept him before he had to search far. Eventually I. made an appearance and then Chinara, who busily telephoned around to organise the remainder of her day. Read more…

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Topo Map, Tramping, Youtube Videos

2. Auckland: Coast-to-Coast

Thursday, February 12: Overcast throughout the day, clearing a little in the evening

Tramping: Coast to Coast (Te Araroa), 16.3 km

Chinara’s

Slept through to 9:30 and didn’t hear Chinara leaving at 8. I wanted to do the Coast-to-Coast Walkway today (a section of the Te Araroa Track) and had a map prepared but … First of all, couldn’t find the glasses, then couldn’t find the file, except finally on the safe page on the web. WTH. Saved it to the laptop, packed the pack with only the laptop and some water, and was eventually ready to go by 12:00. Read more…

New Zealand, Swimming, Travel Planning

1. Auckland

Wednesday, February 11: Warm and sunny

Swimming: 1200 m

Chinara’s (airbnb, $56)

Kayaker Intrepid has landed

The plane from Kuala Lumpur was very full, and I was seated in my old seat but had a Maori family sitting next to me who I struck up conversation with (a couple, their daughter and her boyfriend). I had the fish this time round (very spicy) and then took in one half of Walking in the Graveyard until I wasn’t following the story any more and slept a good three hours. My rowmates slept the whole way through to dinner, as did most other people. Passengers today included a variety of people wearing religious attire except for Jews, Hare Krishnas, and Bhagwanis. Read more…

Travel Planning

0. Hannover – Hilversum – Kuala Lumpur – Auckland

Hannover – Hilversum

Sunday, February 8: Sunny, quite cold, clouding over in the afternoon, and clearing again in the evening

Bart & Thera’s (airbnb, €28)

Final tasks that had to be done were cleaning the flat, taking the rubbish out, making some space in the wardrobe and getting the case to shut. Seems it will weigh in at about 26 kg, with another 10 in the rucksack.

Down to the bus stop and then two very short bus rides to the local station, a short train ride to the main station, where I bought a couple of rolls for lunch and then the very long train journey to Hilversum. The train was only fairly full, so I was seated for the entire trip, but had to lift the case up to a shelf at about 1.5 m height, and there was little room to do a crouch and grab. Read more…

Kayaking, New Zealand, Photography, Travel Planning

Countdown

It’s time for the preparations to draw to a close, after ten months. Of course, there’ll be stuff that still has to be bought because it was forgotten back at the ranch. I’m still wrangling with the car hirer about whether a larger suitcase than the current one will fit into the boot of the car I’m hiring, and that may continue for several days. I’ll at least try to pack the existing case, but I suspect that, with all the camping gear, too much will be left for the pack. Read more…

Photography, Youtube Videos

CHDK continued

After discovering this wonderful way of turning inexpensive digital cameras into exquisite photographic instruments of many times the price, I have continued to develop my use of CHDK, and CHDK has continued to develop itself, with the releases of versions 1.2 and 1.3. This means that I have been back to their wiki every now and then to make some improvements to the writing (although never as much as I hoped I could do), and, occasionally, discovering something new.

This trip will feature time lapses as a major project. I have detailed the problems of getting long time lapse sequences to stay focussed throughout the whole sequence. This done, there remained the question of initialising the camera for the time lapse shoot. Unfortunately some of the kayaking sequences shot last autumn turned out to be of limited use because either the camera had been accidentally turned off, or the settings were not suitable for the shoot (e.g. ISO set too high). Read more…

Travel Planning

Google and Other Aviation Disasters

Over the course of a couple of years Google has honed its search engine algorithm so far that, regardless of what search terms are entered, the corresponding Wikipedia page appears as the first hit. Now there would appear to be just one last tweak to perfect this system, and I may very well be prepared to take it in the near future. Read more…