No Friday in Samoa
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
Today (Friday) does not exist in Samoa. Without the aid of a parachute or safety net, Samoa is jumping the international date line (IDL) and joining NZ, Fiji & Tonga on the other side of the date line.
I can see the sense in this, with so many holiday’s from NZ & Aus, plus lots of business, being out by a day is a real pain. I once spent many hours trying to rack my brain around which flights we needed to get from Auckland to Samoa, plus how many nights accommodation we’d need in Samoa – compounded by then trying to figure out which day we needed to fly to and from Wellington-Auckland for the domestic connecting flight – all darn confusing. Plus of course, with AirNZ providing flights at awkward times anyhow, the knots got worse trying to figure out if we actually needed a hotel in Auckland coming back - arghhh!!! it was just all too confusing. Fiji was easier.
Which is really the point.
And with American Samoa staying where it is, some people are already eying up the options to spend New Year in Samoa, then take a quick flight to American Samoa and party all over again.
After a hundred or so years of being one of the last place on Earth to see in the new year, they will suddenly become one of the first. Although I’m not sure whether you’d consider it the East or West side of the IDL, look at a flat Mercator projection map, it’s on the right, therefore the East. Look at a Pacific map and it’s on the left, and thus West of the IDL. Either way, I think Kiribati still takes pole position, being 13 hours ahead of GMT.. Wrap your brains around that one.
Why you need marine insurance when you emigrate.
See those “boxes” tipping over on the back of that ship? Some of those could contain the household goods of people moving to New Zealand. The Rena has been run aground on a reef near Tauranga. For ease – the Dom Post has a nifty The Story So Far section:
Wednesday, October 5
2.20am: Rena, a Liberia-flagged 235m vessel, was heading to Tauranga from Napier when it crashed into the Astrolabe Reef, about 7km north of Motiti Island. Maritime NZ said the cargo ship, which was carrying 1900 tonnes of fuel, was on a 10-degree list and some fuel had leaked from its hydraulic pumps.
Thursday, October 6
-An early morning flight by MNZ confirmed an oil slick stretching 2 kilometres.
-Four dead birds were found, covered in oil. An oiled wildlife response team was mobilised.
-The Director of Maritime New Zealand issued the owners with two notices. One, that a reputable salvor be appointed. Two, that MNZ can take control if it deems it necessary and the vessel owner must comply with the National On Scene Commander’s directions.
Friday, October 7
-Four little blue penguins and two shags affected by oil were rescued from Motiti Island. Six teams of responders are deployed and joined by 10 more teams on Saturday.
Saturday, October 8
-Fresh oil is spotted leaking from the cargo ship, which is on an 11-degree list, MNZ confirms.
-Specialists from around New Zealand and Australia join the more than 100-member strong oil spill response team led by MNZ. Three hundred defence force personnel are on standby.
Sunday, October 9
-Oil recovery teams head out on the water to collect oil. The oiled wildlife response is continuing
-About 10 tonnes of oil is pumped from the Rena to the bunker barge Awanuia.
Monday, October 10
-3500 tonnes of oily water has been recovered and offloaded at the Port of Tauranga.
-Clumps of oil are found washed up on the beach.
-Awanuia is currently alongside Rena and preparations are underway to transfer oil from Rena to the Awanuia, weather permitting.
Tuesday, October 11
- Environment Minister Nick Smith calls the incident our worst environmental disaster.
- Stormy weather in the region makes the clean-up difficult
- Maritime New Zealand issue warnings for volunteers to stop picking up clumps of oil.
Now, the captain of the ship is being charged, and faces a fine of upto $10,000 or 1 year in jail. His ship is leaking oil which will do substantial damage to the New Zealand environment and we have to pay to clean up his mess.
$10,000 or 1 year jail! That 10% of the fine, and 14% of the jail time he could face if he got caught giving immigration advice without a licence.
But that aside – what would you do if that happened to the ship carrying your containing?
I despise insurance companies – especially with the sickening way they are behaving in New Zealand right now with regard to the earthquake in Christchurch – but I also know I would stump up the cash and pay the premium to insure all my worldly goods when shipping them half way round the world.
Our shipping insurance cost £1,390 7 years ago (blimey was it really that long). It was 3% of the value of what we shipped. Looking at that listing ship – which is by all accounts about to break apart – I am glad we did.
Taking a much needed day off…
After 4 or 5 weeks (I’ve mercifully lost count) of working really long hours and not really being the laid back “I-don’t-have-a-job” part time blogger – we took a day off yesterday and spent the whole day at the beach.
Where our biggest worry was whether the storm that the Met Service was promising was going to materialise. When we arrived there was absolutely no sign of impending storminess:
It did start to get grey and cloudy just after 1pm, but we ended up having an afternoon nap and by the time we woke up it was once again clear blue skies and warm sunshine.
After another coffee, we decided to use the paper cups to build sandcastles with – so we hereby introduce you to the lesser-known Sand-Henge:
It was an absolutely lovely day. No phones, no laptops, no decorating, no “must sit down and get info together for the lawyers”. Just a day on the beach with us the only people on it.
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Tranquil Wellington
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Life in New Zealand, Things to do
We took some time out yesterday during a day of personal appointments and headed off to Oriental Bay with some coffee (as you do). We spent a pleasant half hour just sitting in the sun watching the boats and just spending some time. The clarity of the water here is really something, and where we sat, you can look over the harbour wall and see just how clean it is:
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Surf and flying sofas.
It was a glorious sunny day in the Wairarapa yesterday, so unsurprisingly we dashed off to the beach as soon as we had stuffed ourselves with a decent brekkie. As my new camera takes videos, I decided to film the sea and share it. Becasue it really is so lovely it needs to be shared. Now these are certainly not Lucasfilm quality clips or anything – but the first one does have the advantage of a surprise appearance of a guy skimming across the water on a tabletop.
I want one of those!
The second one shows the sea a bit closer. I had to take the sound off because by this time the wind was really getting a bit powerful (we were hit with the edge of the cyclone that caused such devastation in Australia). It was jut too noisy and covered the sound of the sea. But you can see just how big some of the waves were – which is just how I like it.
Because the wind was so strong – after you got knocked over by a wave and came up on the other side, the wind was blowing the spray all over us. It was like being in a sea water rainstorm.
Quite spectacular.
And the interesting day didn’t end when we left the beach! On the way back, we were following 2 cars with loaded trailers. We got to a straight bit, and hubby pulled out to overtake and put his foot down. As we came alongside the first car and was about to pull in, a 2 seater sofa in the trailer behind the front car lifted up and out of the trailer and came hurtling towards the spot we were going to pull in to.
And we had the hood down!
Hubby put his foot down some more and got past the guy as I watch the sofa bounce towards the back car (it missed), and we got in front of the still oblivious driver of the front car and got him to stop. He was gobsmacked. And the kids in the back were really impressed with the coolness of the situation. Which to be honest – it really was. I guess I would have thought differently if the sofa had killed my car (or us) but no harm was done, and there was nifty driving from Hubby and the guy behind us.
Life is an adventure somedays.
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You can’t beat Wellington an a good day :)
We had a lovely lazy morning today: Hubby was off work and some meeting we had to go to didn’t start till late morning. The sun was shining and the sky was blue – so we decided to have breakfast down by the waterfront. We plumped for Beach Babylon – the Fat Bastard Breakfast (highly recommended even if it had the meanest serving of hollandaise I have ever seen on a breakfast). Steak, Eggs, Bacon, Mushrooms, Tomato and chips if you want them.
All served just opposite Oriental Bay beach.
After we stuffed ourselves silly, we grabbed an extra coffee and went to chill for a while on the beach:
Really; you can see why it’s worth moving here!
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Boxing day in New Zealand: Beach or…
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
Shopping?
Apparently, according to the news (so it must be true) boxing day is the busiest shopping day in New Zealand. And given the fact that as we went past the Warehouse in Masterton yesterday on the way to the beach, the carpark was overflowing and all the spaces on the street were full of cars – there does seem to be some truth in this.
One woman interviewed on the news said they had been queuing at Sylvia Park in Auckland since 6.15am. 
Well, sod that.
We headed straight to the beach – no detouring for “sales” and crowds of people. Sun, sand, surf and coffee is what an NZ Boxing Day should be like for me. Chilling with a book and and freezing in the waves. Chomping through a picnic of left over Christmas dinner.
Today, we aren’t actually off to the beach – but there will be no shopping, with a high probability of lots of lounging by the pool, a bit more reading and a swim or two.
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First Ocean dip of the season.
We decided a day at the beach was in order after a tough week in which Hubby was ill (and I had to stay up all night checking his temperature), really busy with work, and I have been working my way through a few hundred invoices that someone things the Body Corporate of our apartment block should pay to see if in fact we should. (Mostly the answer is “Nice Try Sonny Jim!”)
So, off to Riversdale we toddled, it was a bit overcast and the sea was kinda grey rather than a lovely warm turquoise – but there were others playing in the waves. So we braved it and ran it.
It was COLD!
Positively hypothermic!
Best summed up by this quote:
When I said my quarters were cold, I did not mean, ‘Oh, I think it’s a little chilly in here, perhaps I’ll throw a blanket on the bed.’ No, I said it was cold, as in ‘Oh, my left arm has snapped off like an icicle and shattered on the floor!
Londo Mollari: Babylon5 – The Illusion of Truth.
Ah well, after 5 minutes you pretty much go numb and cant feel it anyway – then you can get on and have fun.
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The beach is open for summer :)
Riversdale today: Lifeguards out on duty and they brought the sun and beautiful turquoise seas with them. And some stellar sandcastle building.
f
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In total contrast…
… to todays devastation in Christchurch- this was the view we woke to this morning.
Hubby and I then went to the beach for the afternoon. We were supposed to be doing some work in the attic, but just couldn’t face it.
Seems the local Seagulls love my open top car as much as I do.
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