Victorian Photo Challenge

I'm heading over the ditch to Melbourne next weekend, and in the vein of the previous photo challenges I've tried, I thought for fun I'd revive the concept and ask for a hit list of things to photograph while I'm over there. Things must be readily visible, or not going to get me arrested by photographing them.

So, if you are reading, challenge away, and I'll post the results when I get back.

48 hours to comply

Listening to: the radio Actually, no I'm not, since the radio got boring, so now I am listening to Nobody Town - Heavy Jones Trio

Photo Challenge Redux
Two years ago I drove up to Auckland on my lonesome to attend an Airshow. Having no-one to talk to, and pondering ways to stay alert, I hit upon a blog driven photo challenge to keep me occupied on the drive. I elicited targets from my readers, and it was wildly successful, in the way that only a man taking random pictures of things at the side of the road can be.

The initial challenge call is here
The results are here

So two years on after a planned family trip to the AK was scaled back, and scaled back again, I find myself facing 18 odd hours of solo tedium, which singing out loud badly can only go so far to relieve (although the airshow in the middle should help a bit, and hopefully my choice of campsite).

So who's up for a rematch?

The rules are simple. Via the magic of comments, or txt if you have my number, or email if you have that, tell which things between Wellington and Auckland that are notionally visible from State Highway 1 you want a happy snap of.

I'll only apply two caveats:
1. Nothing from the previous list is allowed. Too easy. I posted the links so you could do your homework.
2. Anything requiring an interior shot that isn't a tunnel will not be eligible. Especially not the interior of public toilets, which I got a frankly alarming number of requests for last time.

Whoever gets the most targets photographed gets a prize.

Since this trip is being done on an exact and tight budget, I'm also willing to run a side sweepstake on how far I'll get on a single tank of petrol by employing hypermiling (ah, where would we be without Wikipedia? Probably a little bit smarter I think) techniques. On my last trip up I got to the far side of Hamilton (about 530 km) before needing a refill. Since at a stretch I can get that sort of milage around town, I'm thinking a big improvement can be gained on the open road. Guess the best milage out of a tank I get and you get a prize.

I'm setting off at around 0700 on Friday morning, so you have until then to get your requests in.

***
Other Stuff

Homegrown was a lot of fun. I spent most of it revisiting old and good times, embracing the fact that in recent years I have diversified into listening to several genres, at heart I am a rocker.

Fur Patrol never really went away, although they are nothing like as visible now as they were in the late nineties and early oughts. Still a much better band live than they ever were recorded.
I had never seen Dimmer live before, so had no idea what to expect, but I do have one of their albums, so my expectation of effects laden fuzz rock turned out to be right on. I thought to be fair I should have gotten a picture that includes the band as well as Shane Carter, but since for all intents and purposes he is Dimmer, he can suffice (I mean, can anyone name any other members off the top of their heads?). If you don't know ho he is, google the name and follow the links around for a while.

I was hanging out to see Hutt rockers Weta, since I wasn't yet a fan the last time I saw them play (Supporting Soundgarden at The Wellington Town Hall in 1996). I didn't really get into them until they had ceased to function, albeit after revealing a very 'grows on you' album in 2000. Reforming just for this event, they stated that this was to be their last gig, so I am glad I was there. And it was a good set, they were tight for a band that hasn't toured in ten years, and played all of my favourites. It got a bit weird at the end when they had one too many hangers on on stage, but it was so worth it.

But what me and a whole lot of other people were also hanging out for was seeing the almighty Head Like A Hole (later shortened to HLAH) reformed. And they owned it like they had never been away, the best gig from anyone I have seen in a while. They have always been one of my favourite live acts. The music was loud and tight, and the banter truly kiwi rock and roll (including a hilarious send up of fellow festival performers Evermore). HLAH reminded everybody of just why they are local legends of the game.

Fur Patrol, Weta and HLAH were all prominent bands in the Wellington scene in the 1990's. Now the Wellington scene (for lack of a better word) seems to be a bit dub heavy (more about that later), but back then it was all rock baby. At the time I felt a certain pride and ownership that these bands (and others) were making good music in my city, and they were from my city, it was exciting. Revisiting it was a whole lot of fun, and more than a little wistful. Plus it was evident that while I always thought of them as 'ours' in the sense of being Wellington bands, a whole lot of people came to see them on Saturday because they thought of them as 'ours' in the sense of being New Zealand bands, which was cool.

I was a bit moany about the scheduling on Saturday, and still am a little bit (I missed Concord Dawn entirely, caught the end of Supergroove's set, and didn't realise Shapeshifter were still playing until after I had left), but overall it was nice not to travel anywhere to go to a decent one day music event, and I really enjoyed it.

Roadtripping ephemera

If you haven't noticed already, the results of the photo challenge are posted below. The winner was Janet, by virtue of having the highest proportion of submissions to hits.
Congratulations! A prize will be heading your way once I figure out what it is.

Just some random roadtrip pics

Just in case any Auckland readers are wondering why I visited their fair city and didn't look them up, its because I really was just passing through. I was staying in Orewa, attending an event in the upper harbour area, and spent no time in the city proper at all. I got in late Friday and left early Sunday, with a very full Saturday in between.


Chinook got to be the mascot for this trip, as he hasn't seen that much of his adopted homeland yet. As usual he insisted on riding up front.
This is one of my favourite ways to start the day. A full tank of petrol, nothing on the tripmeter, the morning sun shining and the open road beckoning.

Continuing my indulgence with old abandoned houses near Taihape. I saw an excellent example near Cambridge, but was running out of camera battery, so it will have to wait until next time.

Sunrise over Great Barrier Island from Hatfields Beach, Orewa 21st March 09

Wide shot from the same location

At the airshow Chinook wasted little time finding people from his part of the world (ish) to hang out with, courtesy of a visiting United States Air Force transport from Alaska

He also guarded my gear bag quite effectively.

The car after my journey from Wellington, with an interesting collection of mashed insects to ponder.

My quiet (very quiet) accomodations in Orewa

I mentioned earlier that in addition to a photo challenge I was also on something of an economy drive. I can state for the record that it is 592 kilometers from the Avalon Shell station in Lower Hutt to the Mobil in Mercer that I dared not go past. The fuel capacity on my MX-5 is 48 litres. I know from experience that when the gauge is showing empty there is still between 4 and 6 litres in the tank. However while the absolute capacity is 48 litres, that is no guarantee that all 48 litres are available for use (usable volume). Also once you are eating into that reserve you are off the gauge, and running the risk of running out of fuel at any time without warning.

So when the gauge looks like this (in Taupo on the way back) the drive gets quite exciting indeed:

My previous trip to Auckland saw me getting to Hamilton before refuelling. Mercer is only on the south side of the Bombay Hills which are the traditional southern boundary to Auckland, and from which you can see the Skytower so I did a lot better this time. I drove pretty conservatively, not overtaking, descending hills in neutral, and not revving the engine if I could avoid it. This plus the general reduced consumption on the open road got me an extra 130+ kilometres of travel compared to my normal around town driving.

That said I think I could have got more. The car wasn't as clean as I could get it, either literally or aerodynamically. I had the rear window down for most of the way which would have increased drag, the radio aerial staying up while I had the CD player on did the same, and the general layer of dirt and gunk on the car that results from me not having washed it in a while didn't help the aerodynamics either.

The tankful of petrol acquired in Mercer got me all the way to Taupo on the way home after some not particularly conservative driving in Auckland. Aside from the bits where I was wondering if I would run out of petrol before getting to a servo, it was a fun exercise.

I made a side trip to Palmy on the way home, and heading back to the main road I caught this great and moody underlit sky in the early evening.

Yikes its another photo essay

Or it will be when I get back.
I'm driving to Auckland on Friday, and I thought it would make an interesting travelogue of sorts to take a picture of everywhere I stopped along the way.

And then I thought, what if I had a list of things to photograph, like a challenge maybe? It would give my mind something to do at the very least.

So here is the challenge. You (yes you, reading this) name something you would like a photo of that I might encounter on my journey (via the magic of comments, or TXT if you have my number), and thus challenge me to record it.

Set me a challenge. Declare an item and I will see if I can find it.

Any reasonable thing eligible, but it must be visible from the road. Detours from the main route (I am undecided about going via National Park or Desert Road) of up to half an hour will also be considered.You have around 36 hours to submit.

Results will be published when I get back. Everyone whose item(s) I locate gets a chocolate fish. Yummy yummy chocolate fish.

Challenge redux results 1 : Lauren's List

Right, the results are in from the photo challenge. I'm going to post each list separately, otherwise it just gets crazy.

To be eligible, a target had to be visible from a moving car on State Highway One. Several submissions failed to adhere to this dictum and were ignored.


1. "Kiwi Bird Highway sign"

There aren't any on SH1 between Wellington and Auckland


2. "A Sign with a cheesy Bull related pun in Bulls"

Try the Rat Hole pub in Bulls. Its remark-a-bull.

3. "The Giant Carrot at Ohakune"

Not on SH1

4. "The monument for the 1953 Tangiwai Rail disaster"

Not on SH1

5. "A Fish and Chips Shop, possibly in Paraparaumu"

"Snappers" Fish and Chip shop in Paraparumu. Used to be a hot bread shop a loooooong time ago.

6. "A wild horse sign on the highway"

Near Turangi. Note how much nicer the weather is than the last time we went looking for these Lauren!

7. "A Beautiful Sunset"

Missed the first two out of the three sunsets on offer, but I caught this at Paekakariki on the way home

8. "A winding road sign for a distance of over 2okm"

There aren't any on the stretch of SH1 I travelled. There might be some north of Auckland though

9. "Mt Ruapehu"

Was closed in by cloud when I passed by, so here is a shot I took when passing by in February this year. Looks different with no snow on it eh?

10. "Somebody wearing a beret or fedora or some other equally entertaining piece of headware.

I'm not sure how I was supposed to get that from a passing car, but in the event I didn't see any anyway. However at the airshow I did see this interesting man with ribbons in his hair, so made an exception to the competition rules. You had to see this.

Challenge

Listening to: Into the Blue again-The Album Leaf.

And an unaccustomed silence from the laundry where previously there used to be the random noises of various ratty goings on. An empty cage is sitting on the back porch. *sigh*.

Before we begin

Enjoying muchly D3vo's question and answer sessions at the moment. I wish I'd thought of it, it is the sort of thing I enjoy doing.

Played an excellent game of netball with Suspect tonight, including me winning the mindgame with a young superleague player by means of repeatedly getting him to fall into my shots then shooting twos over him. Also the team played really well and it was a thoroughly enjoyable game.


Right onto business

The Primary Objective

To get to this in Auckland:

My trusty and noble steed


My companions, spirit guides and advisors

Kush, Woodstock and Snoopy.


The Secondary Objective

Keep interested on a long lonely drive by seeking and recording various targets as nominated by readers. The list provided was long and varied, even if some submitters ignored certain eligibility rules. When a target did not comply with the rules a substitute was found. Only one target could not be found completely

The Targets (in order of submission)

Homeperms list

Sorry HP but custard squares generally aren't visible from the road as I stipulated. Never mind though, I found an old school tearooms in Waiouru.

And I didn't see anyone on a horse, let alone a male, but I found this nice picture of several males on horses in Parnell.

NotKate's list

It being a balmy late summer morning when I passed through Levin, there were no Levinians in Leggings. The target could not be located and hence was not photographed.

I saw a great variety of roadkill, ranging in size from magpie to sheep. These two ex-hedgehogs in Bulls and Whenuapai were least dangerous to photograph.

Bulls

Whenuapai

The Giant Market Gardener of Levin.

A wanky personalised plate. Although the plate cannot actually be made out in the shot, I can assure you it was personalised and wanky. Also the driving on display was wanky in nature. Somewhere south of Te Kuiti.

Incidentally, if you are the driver of the lowered and customised white Toyota Altezza that I encountered three times between Tokoroa and Taupo on Sunday, you're an idiot. Your overtaking on the outside of a blind uphill bend was one of the most potentially dangerous acts I have ever seen on the open road, never mind your u-turn in front of me at from the side of the road at Wairakei that required heavy braking and evasive action from me to avoid hitting your precious ride. You are a menace and an accident looking for a place to happen. I just hope no-one innocent is involved when it does. Rant ends.

The inside of a public womens bathroom. Again, not generally visible from the road, this shot of the womens in Ohakune with the interior partly visible will have to do

Rich's list

Huntly powerstation. In Huntly.

Low flying hideously decorated cookietime tearoom plane. Mangaweka.

A Constabull. Not being sure how to interpret this, I took a photo of the Bulls Police Station. This was the last target photographed incidentally.

A tourist in the Taupo toilets. What is with the requests for toilet shots? Taking photos in loos is incredibly difficult to explain, plus the interiors are not visible from the road and thus ineligible. Anyway I got a shot of someone inside the Taupo superloo who may or not be a tourist.

Fish's list

The big silver trout at Taupo.

Cassandra's list

The corrugated iron animals. Tirau.

The golf course on Lake Taupo.

Huntly powerstation. Still in Huntly

The Bombay Hills. Just south of Auckland

Janet's list (as received by text, hence missing an item or two from the commented list which I did not see before I left).

Steam pipes at Wairakei Power Station.

A bank that has been converted into an antique shop. Unable to locate as described, however I did find a bank serving as a bar in Hunterville,

and a petrol station craft shop south of Auckland.

The settler/pioneer family in Hamilton.

Power pylons on the desert road.

A wide load pilot vehicle, near Tangiwai.

Thanks to all who submitted requests. You shall receive your chocolate fish when I see you next.