Wellington has had an awful summer – more rain and wind than sunshine. But every so often the weather surprises you – like this sunset a few days a go.
Tag Archives: Hataitai
Moon over Hataitai
F5.6, 1/160th sec, ISO400, Effective focal length 450mm
Tonight was close to a full moon, and as it rose over the horizon and cleared a bank of clouds I managed to capture this shot.
I’ve tried to get a shot like this many times before but I usually end up with a white blob on a black background. This time the fact it was only just dark and that the moon was magnified because it was close to the horizon all helped.
But this shot was still not what I’d seen through the viewfinder. Given the fact I was hand holding the camera and shooting at 160th of a second to minimise camera shake any detail outside of the moon was lost.
So with a little assistance from my favourite image editor, I’ve put together a view more in keeping with what I saw.
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- The Moon as shot
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- The Moon as I saw it
The summer of 2016
This year, summer is the kind we always dream about. Hot sunny days and warm calm evenings that seem to stretch on forever – with the weather forecaster’s prediction of impending wind and rain being proved wrong time and again.
Tonight, as the sun dropped below the horizon, we were on our front verandah enjoying the view. The girls were waiting patiently to terrorise anyone who dared to pass the gate. What a great evening.
Today Wellington lived up to it’s windy reputation
With winds whistling through Cook Strait at up to 140km/h today our place reminded everyone why it’s called Windy Wellington.
The normally peaceful view of small boats moored in the shelter of Evans Bay looked a little different today.
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- Not our usual spring weather
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- White caps and howling northerlies in Evans Bay
Let’s talk about Hataitai Beach
Gallery
This gallery contains 8 photos.
A couple of posts ago (“One year ago today – 13 July”) I referred to our local beach as Hataitai Beach. To be honest I didn’t know what it was called, it has always been the beach at the bottom of … Continue reading
Coming home
Daisy rediscovers the delight of sleeping on our bed
On Friday we moved back into our home. It is almost a year to the day since we moved out and already that year seems like a blur. Since arriving back in New Zealand with five suitcases, two carry ons and two boxes of freighted stuff we have clearly accumulated some more as it required a small van to move us from the home of our friends to our place.
We arrived home with a little more than we left with
It was fascinating seeing the reaction of the dogs when they walked through the front gate. They knew this place – and immediately set about rediscovering everywhere they used to go and the things they used to do. Those that say dogs just live in the here and now are wrong, our girls remembered everything.
Even old Daisy with her heart condition, failing eyesight, deafness and tendency to collapse at a moments notice gained an added spring in her step and sniffed out her old haunts – immediately starting to bark at those poor passers-by who dared to walk on the pavement outside her front fence. I could almost hear them curse “those bloody barking dogs are back”.
As I write this Daisy is curled up in her basket beside me asleep, at peace with the world. And that’s a good thing.
One of the treats of being home
After the initial shock of moving back to New Zealand there are some things to look forward to that relate to being home. One of these was the chance to ‘unbox’ my cars.
For those of you who don’t know, I like old Porsches and have accumulated a few over the years. On Wednesday I went to the rented garage where two have spent the last year to check on them. Good news! They were both there (a relief) and seemed in good condition (a bonus). In the next week I’ll get a friendly mechanic around and we’ll start them up.
For a petrolhead like me this is bliss.
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- The Porsche 356 coupe and replica 550 Spyder
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- Behind this dirty garage door there should be (hopefully) …
toscanakiwi 
