Hilton Final

Petone won 3-1 against Island Bay. Sam didn’t play the whole game but kept a clean sheet for the time he was on. Here are a few action shots of the lad.

The Weekend

Wonderful weather, warm, sunny with blue skies. I went for a walk from Takapu Road out towards Canons Creek. The sheep kept a watchful eye on me.

It has been quite dry and the hills are very brown. This is the gully formed by a little stream that rises at the top of the ridge (those are power lines criss-crossing in the middle of the picture).

The track comes down to the suburbs of Porirua. That is Mana Island just off the coast

Sunday afternoon Sam was playing in the semi-final of the Hilton Cup which is a pre-season tournament for Wellington clubs. His team, Petone, won (on penalties) so will play the final against Island Bay next weekend.

Here are some action shots of the lad, you will have to imagine his noisy instructions to his team mates.

In case anyone is wondering Sydney won the A-League final, beating Melbourne 4-2 on penalties. It was 1 all after extra time.

Technology and Nostalgia

One of the things I love about Te Interweb and all her manifestations is the access to scenes from my youth. Here is one of the best bands of the 60s, The Kinks and a song specially for Sam.


Aw'right geezer? The Kinks came from my old university stamping ground in North London.

These fellows embody everything good about the transatlantic connection. One of my favourite songs of all time.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

End of the Golden Run

Sydney 4 Phoenix 2. It was a fair result, Sydney consistently played better football. There was controversy over the second Sydney goal which appeared to be a clear hand ball. We’ll never know if that changed the course of the game. All kudos to the Phoenix though – they have had a wonderful season and have gone further than any NZ club before. Let’s hope thay can keep the momentum up next season.

In other news, Ali had her birthday yesterday and we went round for the party. Here is the cake (which was jolly good).

Phoenix v. Newcastle

I was really disappointed that I missed this game but had already made the commitment to go to Mana. On balance I decided that the opportunity to visit that island comes up so infrequently it would be silly to forfeit it.

This is our component of the Phoenix Ladies Supporters Club.
The crowd was another new record for an NZ club game – 32,792. By all accounts (I caught the end of the first half, the second half and extra time on the radio) it was a thrilling game. Newcastle went 1 nil up after 20 minutes. The Phoenix equalised later in the first half and it was still level at full time and after the first half of extra time. In the final 15 minutes we got two goals so go to Sydney next weekend. The winner of that game plays Melbourne the following week. Expect breathless updates as long as we keep winning.

Go Phoenix!

Mana Island

Mana is a small (217 hectare) island 2.5 Km off the coast about 20 kilometres north of Wellington. It was settled by Maori probably about 1400. The full name is Te Mana o Kupe ki Aotearoa which can be translated as "The Ability of Kupe to cross the ocean to Aotearoa”. Kupe was the semi-legendary discover of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Europeans arrived about 1800 and used it first as a whaling station. Maori of the Ngati-Toa tribe, led by the great Te Rauparaha, settled about 1820. Te Rauparaha's nephew Te Rangihaeata was painted outside his whare there in 1850.

European farming was established from the middle of the nineteenth century and by the mid twentieth century the original vegetation and wildlife had been eradicated. After use as a quarantine and breeding station it became a Scientific Reserve in 1987 administered by the Department of Conservation (DoC).

There is more history here if you are interested.

From a distance the island looks flat.

The trip was organised by a volunteer organisation called Friends of Mana Island (FOMI) who have assisted DoC with fund raising and restoration of the island’s ecosystem. We have been on two planting trips and I was interested to see how the revegetation is proceeding.

We travelled in a small catamaran and transferred to shore in a tender. If you look closely you can see the transmitters at Titahi Bay that carry Radio New Zealand broadcasts nationally and across the Pacific.

We did see lots of birds but it wasn’t easy to get good photos of most of them.
Here is a North Island Robin who has turned its head away

This view is looking back over the wetlands towards the DOC ranger’s house.

Here flax is growing on the hillside. All these planting have occurred since 1987.

An attempt has been made to entice gannets to nest on the island. This is by installing a number of concrete effigies cunningly painted to look like the real thing. To date no real gannets have been fooled.

It was a warm day and after climbing up a couple of hills and travelling half way round the island we rested after lunch.

This is a trick shot! Mana in the foreground, the mainland in the background, but no sea to be seen.

Kapiti is north of Mana and seen here through the afternoon haze.

This is the oldest part of the forest – a manuka/kanuka stand. We saw many kakariki here.

Perhaps the most popular bird on the island is Takahe. These are very rare, with 10% of the total population of about 300 birds on Mana. Here one is marching purposefully into the undergrowth.

They are large birds, weighing up to 4Kgs.

Descending from the top of the island the path goes through replanted vegetation.
Between the island the mainland are a series of shoals – apparently early farmers used to take cattle across at low tide when the deepest point is about 1.8 metres.
On the beach Kawau roost in macrocarpa (it’s not wise to walk underneath, at least not without an old umbrella!).

Taranaki

We spent the weekend in Taranaki. This is the area in the west of the central North Island. It takes its name from the wonderful volcano that rises gracefully from the sea to its full height of 2518 metres. The mountain was shrouded in cloud for all the time we were there, although it started to clear as we were leaving. Consequently this is the best shot I managed to get, from near Eltham.
Here is a better image from te web.

The main reason for visiting was to see an exhibition of Len Lye’s work at the Govett Brewster Gallery. Lye was a New Zealand born artist who was active in the avant garde movement from the 20s until his death in 1980.

Many of his ideas were unable to be realised with the technology available at the time. There are several modern interpretations of his designs, including the Water Whirler in Wellington and the 45 metre Wind Wand on the foreshore walk in New Plymouth.

New Plymouth was one of the first places outside Wellington we visited after arriving in 1976. We liked Pukekura Park then and it still is a magical place. This is Poets Bridge – so named because the original was built with the proceeds of a bet on a race horse called The Poet.

This is a recreation of a photo we have from our first trip to New Plymouth. I must try and find the original for comparison!

Here are a couple of views of other areas of the park.

While in New Plymouth we caught up with several friends, and handed over Sirloin to Janet and Mike representing Phoenix Morris. Sirloin was made in the late 70s for The Pride of Holland Street, the Morris side that Noreen and I used to dance with.