Originally uploaded by beejayge
It is just so sad to see the devastation the February 2011 earthquake caused this previously beautiful city. It’s like a ghost town, suddenly abandonned and at times I felt like the sole survivor after a nuclear holocaust.
I went shopping in this Farmers store once for a new tie. I had rushed down to Christchurch to take over from my boss who was sick and forgot to bring a neck tie.
I’m down in Christchurch for the week and it’s my first visit since the big earthquake. I don’t have words for how mind blowing the drive in from the airport was. All the cherry blossom trees surrounding Hagley Park are out in full bloom and looked stunning. I was looking forward to having a wander around the city after work and taking some photos before dark.
BUT once the taxi pulled up outside work and I looked across the road at a now very empty lot that was once a beautiful old church I went into shock. I looked round to see another vast empty plot of land where the Crown Plaza Hotel used to be and could not believe my eyes.
At lunch time I went in search of food, which was harder than I thought, there’s not much open that sells food anymore. There are big fences erected everywhere and the roads are mainly rubble. I stopped to look through a fence at one stage to see where the cathedral is still standing and it really did look like a scene from a movie… the streets were empty, the buildings were empty and broken. It was so sad, this once beautiful city now looks like a dusty old ghost town complete with tumbleweeds.
I did eventually find a very groovy place to eat, in an area they’ve set up with loads of containers that have been turned into shops and eating places, but of course none of them take eftpos and couldn’t issue me with a receipt.
And so much for taking photos after work… there was torrential rain and it was very very cold, something like minus two degrees. On a more positive note, the motel I’m staying in is marvelous and surrounded by loads of places to eat and all of them have a charge back arrangement with the motel. There is even a massive spa bath which I’m about to make the most of!!! This could be the best place I’ve ever stayed at for work, which is the complete opposite to the last time I was in Christchurch when I stayed in the WORST place ever.
Today my guardian angel was looking after me big time! Three things happened today that could have easily turned out to be stressful but instead they turned out wonderfully.
The first thing that went wrong was when I went to get the car keys for the car I had booked for my work trip to Hamilton this morning, the keys were missing and so was the car. Turned out someone had taken the wrong car or had not returned the car I’d booked when they were supposed to. After a bit of researching the guys that look after the cars decided to give me their brand new very flash and powerful SUV and juggle the rest of the bookings for the week. It was very nice to drive and even had a USB port for my iPod and the volume and songs could be controlled from the steering wheel.
The next thing that went wrong was after I checked into the hotel after arriving in Hamilton I was running across the road to work and my cellphone slipped out of my pocket landing in a puddle outside the hotel and I didn’t notice. After being at work for about 10 minutes I went to make a call and realised I’d lost my phone. I looked through everything, phoned it, asked around but couldn’t find it. So I went back to the hotel retracing my steps but no luck. As a last resort I went to the hotel reception and asked if I’d left my phone on the reception counter and she said no but someone did hand one in a couple of minutes ago… They found it in a puddle outside. Amazingly a car never ran over it and it still works and doesn’t even have a scratch on it. How lucky is that!!!
The other thing that happened was a double booking of the room that I was supposed to be setting up for training. There was a grand finale baking competition underway in the room so as a way to make it ok with me they invited me to be a special guest judge. As you can see from the photo the quality of baking was fantastic and tasted great but to fairly judge all the entries, the 6 Judges and I had to try everything on offer while all the staff watched. Actually after I took the photo above, another 5 entries turned up, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much cake in all my life.
So a mixed up car booking got me the best car in the whole fleet, a dropped cellphone into a puddle on the road was handed into a place I could get it back from and it still worked, and a mixed up room booking turned into a cake eating extravaganza.
Originally uploaded by beejayge
I’ve uploaded all the Dunedin photos to Flickr. Plus the photos have descriptions in case you want to know more. Click the photo to check them out.
When I checked in at Auckland Airport I was issued with window seat 20F, which I promptly wanted to change to a seat on the other side of the plane because I figured the view on the way to Dunedin would be far more interesting on that side of the plane. But I couldn’t change my seat, there were none left on that side of the plane.
On the way back from Dunedin I sat in 19F and discovered I actually had the BEST seat for travelling down on, the view on the way back was actually kinda boring and certainly nowhere near as spectacular as on the way down. So glad I couldn’t change my seat.
I’ve been down in Dunedin for two days work and had a great time. The weather has been perfect, cloudless blue skies but a tad chilly (minus two degrees when I arrived yesterday morning). I even got to leave work early enough to do the Cadbury Chocolate factory tour, something I’ve wanted to do for years ever since I heard such a thing exists.
The tour was definitely worth doing, it was 75 minutes long and at just about every every major view point we got a chocolate bar, we even got to taste the liquid chocolate that goes into Jaffas. The tour guide asked us many questions and if we answered correctly and first, she’d throw a mini chocolate bar at you, like what’s in a box of Favourites.
At the end of the tour the guide came looking for me in the gift shop and said they had a special cap on sale just for me, then dragged me to the baseball cap section and pointed out the Jaffa caps. That was actually so funny and clever I had to buy one, she’d made me feel special.
After the tour I wandered around the city taking photos till dark then headed back to the hotel for dinner. Looking at the photos I took, I’m really pleased with them. The top photo in today’s blog was taken somewhere over the southern alps, Mt Cook might be in there somewhere. The next one is of the Dunedin railway station, the tour guide said it was the third most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere. She then asked us if we knew what the most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere is and I guessed the Sydney Opera House, I guessed right and won a picnic bar for that. The last picture is of a building in the Octagon, but I have no idea what it is, I just liked how the daffodils were everywhere and made the place look happy.
I’ll upload the rest to Flickr later for you to see.
Yesterday I went with some friends to the Auckland Museum to see the Wildlife Photography Exhibition. Very glad I went as it got me all excited to take photos again but it also taught me something… I’m really not into wildlife photography at all.
Today I went to Dad’s place for lunch and as he is downsizing to a smaller home eventually, he is trying hard to part with stuff that he just won’t have room for or needs. A couple of weeks ago he asked us if there was anything we wanted from the china cabinet and I contemplated taking the coffee set which Mum treasured so much. But I couldn’t work out if I wanted it because it reminded me of Mum or whether it would just be a cool thing to have. Mum started acquiring bits from the Acapulco collection back in the 70s so that’s what it reminds me of (Mum & the 70s) and back then I didn’t like it very much, it was too busy and colourful. Mum also had an electric jug in the same design and a hot plate thing for a tea pot and a whole set of coffee cups, so back then as a kid it felt like it was everywhere.
So whether it reminds me of Mum, my childhood or I just think its cool, I decided to take it anyway. Now I shall have to have a tea party (coffee party) to use it.
I have at long last updated the houses project with the home we lived in back in 1970 (my first year of school) click here: Houses Project OR you can click the Pages link on the right under the previous entries calendar.
I went to Wellington this week for two days to teach a course down there for the last time. I have been going down there regularly every six weeks to teach that course, the Wellington trainer is back now so I don't need to do that anymore. I had mixed feelings about it, coz I love going down to Wellington to do it, but it's not an easy course to teach, but it went well, we had fun and it was great to get to do it one last time.
While I was there even though it was freezing cold I went out for a walk while I waited for my dinner. They told me the restaurant was really busy so I would have to wait about half an hour for my meal to be ready to be collected for room service. So I went for a walk to fill in time but I think it didn't take that long to make the meal, coz from the look of it, it was ready in about 15 minutes, oh well still tasted pretty good.
During the walk I took the photos you see above. The other photo is of the three canvas prints I ordered which arrived this week. It has taken me ages to work out which ones I wanted to print coz the special deal I got was for three prints, plus I wanted to have a theme of city buildings taken on my U.S.A. Holiday in March. Anyway I'm really happy with them as they all look like awesome oil paintings.
Water Lilly – Remuera
Originally uploaded by beejayge
At last I have uploaded the photos from day two of the Heroic gardens festival which was back on February the 19th.
Day two was spent visiting the gardens that weren’t in Coatesville (we did those on day one) so this day included a couple of my favourite regulars but also included some new favourites.
As all the photos in the set are of private gardens I have made most of the photos private. If you would like to see the rest of the photos email me for the link.
Hope you’re all enjoying the lovely long weekend – the weather here has been perfect.
Dear readers, sorry it’s been so long since I updated my blog, but I bought a new tv a couple of weeks ago, upgraded to the amazing MySky HDi and I’ve been enjoying that too much to tear myself away long enough to write a blog.
However today I had lunch with a friend who lives near my work on the top floor of an apartment building and the view is so stunning I could hardly concentrate on the delicious meal we were having. I feel so lucky to know her, she’s always fun to be with and it’s so cool to be able to visit someone at their home during my lunch break.
The other thing that made me feel lucky today was… 10 minutes after I got back to work the sky turned black, the temperature turned cold and it started hailing. When I first arrived at my friends place it was so warm and sunny we actually sat outside on her deck.
While I was waiting for the lift to come and take me all the way back down to earth I took a couple of photos…
New Horizons 