I have recently been revising the photo processing business in the hope of coming to terms with all of the photos from the last visit, perhaps even in time for a new trip. New life appears to have been breathed into PHP’s Imagick project so that it will now do a number of things that haven’t yet even appeared in the official documentation, although, if you scratch beneath the surface they are there. This means that my photo processing stuff can be developed with Imagick, which is preferable from a programming point of view (repeat after me: (I (do (not (like (lisp…)))))). After sorting out the median pixel business I was finding out how to get Imagick to do GIMP “grain extract” layering when I made an interesting discovery. Read more…
A problem that arises in high contrast photography is purple fringing due to short wavelength light being refracted around a dark/bright transition. This is different from chromatic aberration of the lens which results in green/purple fringing at such transitions. The latter can be largely removed by resizing the red and blue channels. The classical fix for pure purple fringing has been to use Darla’s Purple Fringe script for the GIMP, but the results are rather modest and require fiddling with afterwards, as shown in these two images:
Fig. 1: Lake Waikaremoana, March 20, high contrast snapshot with substantial purple fringing
Fig. 2: Purple Fringe reduction with Darla’s Purple Fringe for GIMP. Note residual fringing
I’ve dealt with the kayak operators in the previous blog, now’s the time to look at my (our) side of things.
Travel Planning
Buy Whanganui River Journey GPS track here for €5Although the general suggestion is to do either Taumarunui to Pipiriki (150 km) in five days or start further down the river at Whakahoro and do the trip in three days, these are very condensed trips with little room for error. I think the worst mistake made was to schedule the first overnight stop in Poukaria.
The big problem here is that leaving Cherry Grove just after 11:00 for a 36 km leg is just too much for one day. The kayaking alone takes a good five hours, so only two rather restricted stops could be scheduled in order to get to Poukaria by dusk. Also, this is the roughest part of the whole trip, with at least two major rapids, the result of which is that everything is wet, and Poukaria Campsite lies so close to the river that overnight drying of kit is impossible.
A much better strategy would have been to schedule the stopover in Ohinepane (22 km), after taking at least one full lunch break beforehand, and an afternoon stop at Laurens Lavender (1381 River Rd, Aukopae 3991, laurenslavender.com, signposted on the river) for a cuppa and a slice of cake. This would mean a mid afternoon arrival at the campsite, after which everything could be dried, the dry bags repacked, etc. The following day Whakahoro could be reached after 35 km – again about five hours of paddling – but this time with a departure at around 9:00 (or even earlier) and two breaks along the way and arrival at the campsite by around 4:00 which seems realistic. Here again I would make better use of the Blue Duck Café (blueduckstation.co.nz, evening meals by prior arrangement) here to get some fresh food to eat, and of the location of the campsite and hut on higher ground just outside of the valley proper to allow the gear to dry. Read more…
The eclipse last night went off perfectly well, except for a bit of cloud in the run up. By the time the penumbral eclipse was well into happening the skies were clear and then, of course, as the light of the moon dimmed the stars became much brighter and there was a grand view of the Milky Way from the south side of the house which rivalled that on the Whanganui River Journey. I was occupied with my two cameras and a number of sequences were achieved. Set up the A470 to do a last hour of the moon reappearing and then shut down when the batteries ran out while I had a beer. Beki’s house alarm went off at some point and then became silent but she had been awoken by it, and got up and asked me to go to bed. Read more…
Saturday, April 4: Fine & warm with variable cloud
Beki’s (airbnb, $50)
The two Japanese guests had gotten up very early to catch the sun rise and there wasn’t much to do for breakfast, apart from also frying the sandwiches for lunch. Showed Nissi and Chisato some of my photos on facebook (startrailing the clouds, and lightning) and they immediately signed up as friends. As I speak no Japanese, their banter was just background, but every now and then they would discuss some English word or grammatical question (“disgusting” seemed to be quite a favourite, and “He’s mean, isn’t he?” was also high on the agenda) indicating that he was trying to show off his knowledge of the language. In any case 10:00 was approaching, so I threw all of my things together, then packed my stuff out of the fridge into the chilly bin. I went and found Ron to pay him for his efforts and we had a chat about walking in the Waitakere. Then I was headed in the direction of Opua. Read more…
Friday, April 3: Sunny to begin with, clouding over but still warm
Wainui
Keeping Aussies out, Russell, snapshot
I was first up and through with cooking my breakfast before Christine and Alexander needed all of the available space to get their stuff together (and then they forgot their food in the food bin and a can of coke on the fridge, and had to come back and pick it up). I went on to process yesterday’s pictures and secure them on the hard disk, and then there was clarification of the partial/full eclipse of the moon story, with timeanddate.com (which claimed yesterday that the eclipse would only be partial, and me wondering whether a full eclipse in the northern hemisphere might only appear partial if you were far south enough, or vice versa) now claiming that the eclipse will be full in Auckland as well, which solved that problem. Read more…
Thursday, April 2: Some cloud came over during the course of the night and there was rain in the early morning, clearing to a fine & sunny day
Tramping: Cape Brett – Rawhiti, 15.1 km
Wainui Lodge, 92D Te Wahapu Rd, Russell 0272, tel.: +64 9 403 8278, double as single, only two rooms, max. 5 guests (BBH, $50 + 3)
Cape Brett Cliffs, snapshot
I had photographed three fixed time sequences during the night: One of the rising moon, one of the moon @ full zoom (A470), and one of the Southern Cross (SX120) until the batteries gave out. The camera was retrieved due to increasing cloud, but the tripod had been tied to the picnic table with a new twist-and-tighten mechanism which I was unwilling to untie late at night.
The hut was still very warm, but there were no bugs so I slept on an open sleeping bag. It started getting light about 6:30 and by 7:15 the sun was rising. Now this would have been a good sunrise to shoot, but I was concentrating on getting out alive. Breakfast was quickly dealt with, the salt shaker seemed to work fine and everything was washed, dried (including the sox) and packed away by 8:30. Swept out the hut (a little bit of grass cuttings had found its way into the hut) and then I was ready to go. Read more…
Centabay Backpackers, 27 Selwyn Rd., Paihia 0200, tel.: +64 9 402 7466, twin as single (BBH, $35 + $3)
Auckland Green Gecko Naultinus elegans at Peter and Sara’s farm
Awoke around 8:00 and had breakfast of some sort of cereal with yoghurt and raw milk, hot cross buns and coffee with Sara and Peter, packed my stuff together, and was ushered out to see and handle the geckos. Sara has a licence to keep them and I was shown all of the species and had them crawling all over me. A couple of shots. Then she was off to her voluntary work and I was left with Peter. Gave him a copy of the book, which I had to dedicate and sign, and he accepted it as payment for last night’s dinner, which was a reasonable deal. Then there was a never-ending conversation until both of us decided we’d had enough. Read more…
Sunday, March 29: Rain at first clearing to cloudy through to sunny with a shower or two
Tramping: Tokatoka, 0.6 km (return)
Peter & Sara’s (airbnb, $50)
It was pouring when I got up, and I had my breakfast and was finished well before Michelle got up. I was in no hurry and it was raining so I leisurely packed my stuff. In time she was up and under the shower; then I gave her a copy of the book and was off to Tom’s.
Bella watching the sheep from TokatokaWas there pretty much on the dot of 11:00 and Cather & the boys were still collecting their stuff for the day’s programme. Charlotte was very enthusiastic and had to be taken outside. Eventually all were ready to leave and Tom & I went down to Takapuna to a very posh place with all-organic, gluten-free etc. stuff for brunch. Tom had some scrambled eggs and I opted for the chilli chicken on ciabatta, both with flat whites. Read more…
Friday, March 27: Overnight rain, sometimes quite heavy, lighter rain in the morning, cloud in the hills, a bit of sun in Coromandel
On the Beach
I was up fairly bright and early but the day didn’t look like it was going to be up to much so I waited around a bit, had a look at the surf and could tell that the kayaking would be off again. The alternative was to drive to Coromandel and see if I could do one or two short walks. sandwiches were prepared and off I took at around 11:00 after seeing that my bookings for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were in the bag. Read more…
