Misty Morning

Another weekend at the house and it's even colder than last weekend. I expect that this winter will be the first winter since I was at school in which I will experience the pain of chillblains.

At least the cold snap produces lovely blue skies though...

Mount Taranaki

I might not have seen much of Wellington yesterday, but I did have a fantastic view of Mount Taranaki on the outward flight.



We flew just to the east of this active but quiet volcano and I was amazed to see what a long shadow it cast as the sun came up.



You can see more of my photos from this and other New Zealand flights here.

Flying Visit

Here's how Wellington airport looked when we were here in 2004. Since then Gollum has disappeared to look for his precious.


A return trip to Wellington today and I didn't see much beyond the airport...

Learning the Lingo

Alongside all the acronyms and jargon, I've had to learn all sorts of kiwi phrases which have come up in the office. Here's a sample of the slang:

• Box of fluffy ducks - this means that everything is good - not full of sh*t and feathers
  
• Bigger than Ben Hur - a description of an issue or challenge which is on the large and intimidating side
• Turn to custard - now the issue which was bigger than Ben Hur has blown up as predicted
• She'll be right - a dose of optimism
  
• Chocolate fish - this is the opposite of custard - a prize for doing a good job
• Good on ya mate! - a phrase to accompany the chocolate fish

Vintage Vehicles

There are all sorts of old cars around Auckland but this has to be one of the more unusual vintage vehicles. An old trailer, towed by a tractor, which parks up on Commerce Street most nights to serve burgers to dirty stop-outs. Remarkably the White Lady has been running since the 1940s but I haven't yet checked out their ethical options.

Missing Millions

It was announced today that a service station owner from Rotorua had been lucky enough to receive a credit of $10 million when expecting nothing more than an overdraft of $10,000. Not surprisingly, he opted to send most of the money overseas and swiftly followed it.

Does that explain why Westpac bank employees were collecting on Queen Street this morning? Or was it the rescue helicopter which was going to benefit from donations?

Like the Back End of a Bus

Auckland has some pretty cool buses. This is a Waka Pacific Bus which serves Counties Manukau in South Auckland. "Waka" is Maori for canoe and I'm embarassed to say that this is the only brand of bus that we've actually used.


Here's a North Shore bus representing the bright blue skies and yellow sands of the East Coast Bay. You can see the volcanic peak of Rangitoto, lots of pohutukawa


And finally, this bus goes west. It features a pink tui (not seen in the wild - these wattled birds tend to be black) and the appropriately yellow bloom of the kowhai.


For comparison purposes, here are some buses from the old days, found at MOTAT, the Museum of Transport and Technology...