Category Archives: Wellington

A refresh for a trusty workhorse

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When it was first produced in 1989 the Mazda MX5 was hailed as the quintessential sports car – open topped, great handling and pretty to boot. I bought one of the first to come into New Zealand and have owned it ever since. It has been great fun to drive and has displayed that legendary Japanese reliability with over 130,000 kilometres on the clock and only minor repairs to show for it.

However in the last 12 months it has started to show it’s age. Not surprising considering the car is close 23 years old, it’s 13 years since it’s last repaint and 10 years since it’s soft top was last replaced.

With that in mind it was despatched to the excellent team at Classic Auto Refinishers in early October with instructions to “make it like new”.

Today they sent some shots of the car as it has progressed. The good news is it’s only a few days away from completion, the bad news is it’s still looking a bit pink.

After the paint shop, the next stop is the upholsters for a new (watertight) hood and then it’s as good as new – just in time for summer.

Spot the dog

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Bella in the toysBella is 9 months old and although she is close to full grown she is still very much a puppy. As you can see from this shot of her after she dived into the toy basket. Extra points for spotting the head, the tail and the stray leg.

Down to the sea in bricks

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Trans Future 5 visit Wellington

Wellington is a harbour city so the locals take an interest in the various vessels that come to visit. Cruise ships are common these days, berthed alongside the container ships and various other freighters that use the port as they load and unload their respective cargos.

So if you see locals taking a picture of a ship it’s either something special or something else. This was something else. – maritime utility taken to it’s extreme.

As close as you can get to a floating brick.

There’s something fishy going on here

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Shark Finning MuralDriving through Wellington over the last few weeks a recently painted piece of street art on the corner of Cable and Chaffers Streets has caught my eye. The entire side of a building is covered in sharks – of all shapes, types and colours.

I think it’s a work of genius.

It was also painted for a very good cause as part of Shark Awareness Week. To find out more visit: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9144732/Shark-campaign-hits-the-wall.

If you get the chance, take a look.

Green shoots

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A week ago I published a post about the outbreak of Spring in our garden – heralded by the first shoot appearing on our grapevine. Well, a week is a long time in spring, as the photos show.

The inevitable drive towards summer is gaining momentum.

The dog ate my homework – no seriously

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Which dog ate my homework?

Which dog ate my homework?

Bella has a thing for paper. It is simply too tempting to leave alone. This is something I need to remember when I leave papers on the office floor- for obvious reasons.

Bella, the culprit, is the innocent looking one on the left.

Bella meets the real world

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For the last 5 months Bella’s life has been a mix of eating, running, jumping, playing and sleeping. The worst thing that happened to her was occasionally getting under our feet which meant a yelp, a cuddle and then back to eating, running, jumping, playing and sleeping.

Yesterday that changed. Bella went to the vet for that little operation that puppies have to ensure that more puppies don’t mysteriously start to appear.

Since then, all Bella has wanted to do is yelp, lick her wounds and be held – by Jean or I, whoever is closest. On the ground she spins in circles trying to get to the wound which is obviously irritating her and yelping, before we pick her up for another cuddle.

As I write this she is curled up on my knee making little moaning sounds. To call her a “sad sack” would be an understatement.

What she doesn’t know is that by Monday her life will be back to normal – eating, running, jumping, playing and sleeping. We can’t wait.

Bella after that Op

Sad Bella after “that op” lying on my knee – photo credited Jean.

New Shoots

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First Bud of SpringFor the last week or so I’ve been keeping an eye on our grapevine. When I say “our grapevine”, I mean the one we share with our neighbours and which now runs almost the entire length of the fence between our houses.

In summer it’s covered in leaves. In early autumn it’s covered in grapes but for the last 3 months it’s been bare, doing it’s best impersonation of a dead plant.

Our first clue that spring is on the way and that summer is around the corner is the appearance of the first shoot from those seemingly dead sticks.

And today that first shoot appeared. Summer is coming.

Bella is growing up

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Our little puppy who used to fit in the palm of our hands is now a gangly 18 week old teenager with a mind of her own.

We’ve had a dog trainer come in and help us to wrangle her into line. She’s much better behaved but still has those moments of total abandon when she laps the couch repeatedly at full speed with no regard for anything in her way – whether it be me or Poppie or any piece of furniture that she runs into as her turning circle increases.

In the last couple of weeks she has worked out how to jump up on our bed and Poppie’s last haven of peace and quiet is now gone. But Bella seems to know that the bed is not a place to misbehave and it’s not unusual to find them both side by side, surrounded by their toys, sound asleep.

Today we turn 300

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This gallery contains 191 photos.

Since April 2011 there have been 299 posts to this blog so this one is officially number 300. Over the last 2 and a bit years we’ve covered our trip to Europe – which was the reason for starting this … Continue reading →

Lean on me …

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As Bella grows she is starting to copy Poppie. Whatever Poppie does, Bella does. When Poppie spends time on the back of the couch watching the world go by, so does Bella.

To Poppie it’s a distraction, to Bella it’s just being friends.

From one generation to the next

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One of the things that our dear old dog Daisy used to enjoy was standing on the arm of our couch, looking out the lounge window to the street, and barking at everyone that walked past.

She taught Poppie and now, it seems, Poppie is passing it on to the next generation.

On Friday I photographed Poppie and her barking apprentice Bella, on the arm of the couch, waiting for a new victim to come into view.

It reminded me of a similar photo from 2005. The only difference is 8 years and a new couch.

An escape to the south coast – Part 3

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Following the storm last week I did another photo trip around Wellington’s southern coast. Everywhere there were remnants of the storm – rooves covered in tarpaulins rather than tiles, sea walls partially demolished and road edges undermined and collapsing. Even … Continue reading →

Storm – update

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Today the rain has stopped so it’s clean up day at our place – which will consist of sweeping up some leaves and branches, cleaning some windows and cutting up our fallen olive tree.

But we got off lightly following the storm last week.

Parts of Wellington’s south coast – where I was taking photographs just a few days ago (click here and here to see the photos) – have been hit hard and the clean up work will take weeks. I’ve included some photos that show what south coast locals have to deal with. As one wise local said “if the sea wants something, it will simply take it”. There’s not much more to say really.