Super high tides

Super High Tide at Brighton below, with a green wave breaking through the channel between Barneys and the beach. below again, a set at high tide surges up the beach.

Above double-time pic at Brighton looking down the creek to the beach, bottom image is a super high tide last year, same day the whale was beached at Ocean View. And above, a few days ago
Below: left Back Beach around from Brighton in May 2008, nice wide sand beach. Right, a few days ago photo taken from a bit further down the beach.

Above biting in to the dunes again last year.
Below: taken from back beach looking towards Taieri Mouth a few days ago.

Blackhead 1991 Covenant

Picked up a copy of the 1991 covenant placed on Blackhead headland yesterday from the department of Conservation.
Will read through today, and see what I can make of it, but from the skim, I can safely say I need to change drawing 'D'.

Pic Above: from the internet somewhere, showing a wide sand beach at Blackhead. Not sure what date perhaps about 3+ years ago?
Pic Below: late yesterday, again at high tide. Tide spilling over the top rock plateau.

I also took a walk along St Clair and St Kilda beach yesterday morning, and took some pics with the matchbox Pentax of the exaccerbated erosion, digger out playing with rock placement, exposed rock baskets and fresh dune erosion and slips.
Also a trip to Brighton later in the arvo, where the is a massive amount of erosion occuring at Back Beach. Pics coming of both those sessions.
Good news for me is last week I bought a second hand Canon 30D to replace my dying one, and hopefully it will arrive today in the post. Its been difficult for the last month not being able to take surf shots!

Blackhead Sand Levels

Yesterday at pretty much high tide.
Below, erosion occuring at Blackhead the same time the beach was washed out at St Clair and St Kilda with that series of south east storms/ beach emergency.



Above: a few weeks later, and then Right & Below: three months later.

Below: December same year, 2007

Below: April 2009.

Looking into Blackhead Quarrying

Following Information from here
Quarrying started at Blackhead in the 1950's and is now producing around 120,000 tonnes per year. Products range from general AP materials to high quality M4 roadbases, concrete aggregate, blasting sand, sealing chips and railway ballast.
Geology
Blackhead is a promontory of black basalt situated on the coast approximately 5km south east of Dunedin City's St Clair Beach. Composed of volcanic basalt it was formed about 10 million years ago during the third eruptive phase of the Dunedin volcanic complex. Columnar jointing on the basalt was formed during this cooling and this produced regular sided columns helping the crushing process.
Quality
The high quality resource is used to produce top end products i.e. M4 roadbase, concrete aggregates and sealing chips. To assure anything produced at the Blackhead Quarry meets specification there is an on site laboratory. The entire operation is externally audited for quality assurance to ISO 9001-2000.
Environment
Blackhead Quarry has a covenant; put in place in 1990, to protect unique rock formations at sea level. Blackhead has 0.7 hectares of settling ponds for water treatment. Dust is controlled throughout the plant by the use of water sprays and dust deposited at the boundary is monitored monthly.The quarry was the winner of the 1995 Nissan Diesel Environmental Award and the 1996 winner of the Winstone Safety Award.
Quarrying
Rock is won by drill and blast with a pattern of 2.7m x 3.3m x 10m bench heights. A 30 tonne excavator is used to load a 10 cubic metre rock truck to transport rock to the primary crusher. A 20 tonne loader is also used on the face for general tidyup, road maintenance and load out duties.
Quarried rock is tipped into a 70 tonne hopper and fed to a Nordberg 40 x 30 single toggle jaw crusher which feeds to a 6000 tonne surge pile. An Allis H4000 cone crusher then crushes the rock to 65mm with a screen taking out roadbases, the oversize then feeds a No. I Kumbee for railway ballast production. Any overrun goes to a surgepile to feed a Barmac 9600 duopactor used to produce sealing chips, concrete aggregates and sand. The plant is highly mechanised with video monitoring from the weighbridge. A 20 tonne front end loader handles sales from the stock pile with everything sold over a 13m computerised weighbridge.

	Stone is the most widely used construction material in the world. NZ communities need quarried products to build and maintain homes, hospital, schools and roads
	An average NZ house requires about 250 tonnes of aggregate during construction
	Aggregate makes up part or all of the materials for...
	Concrete tile roofing Brick cladding Gib board & wall linings Concrete for driveways & retaining walls Pavers & paving slabs The base course & top course Concrete floor slab base fill
	1km of highway requires 4000 tonnes of aggregate during construction
	An average family of 4 creates a demand for 32 tonne of quarried material every year.

I'm over dollar reserves!!

Sold for $10.50 on trademe tonight.

arrrggghhhh!

Blackhead Quarry

Slightly different angle last year below

A few views

One photo of St Clair, with a closeup of the same photo, showing the almost finished St Clair Resort.

Beaches set for protected status

Otago Daily Times
By Chris Morris on Wed, 15 Jul 2009
Eleven of Dunedin's coastal reserves look set to be given new protected status, at the expense of some recreational rights, in an effort to protect vulnerable sand dune systems.

The move would see coastal reserves next to beaches at Long Beach, Ocean View, Warrington and Karitane, and seven other locations, reclassified.

Under the Reserves Act 1977, local authorities were required to classify the primary use of the reserves they owned.However, councillors at yesterday's community development committee meeting voted to approve the reclassification of 11 coastal reserves around the city from recreational areas to "local purpose (coastal protection)" zones.

Subject to final approval at the next full council meeting in August, the changes would become part of the council's draft Coastal Dune Reserves Management Plan, due to be released for public consultation in October.The new plan laid out the future rules governing work to protect dunes at Dunedin beaches.

To be protected

• Kuri Beach (two areas on coastal side of Taieri Mouth Rd)
• Brighton (coastal side of Brighton Rd)
• Ocean View (coastal side of Brighton Rd)
• Island Park
• Ocean Grove (coastal side of Tomahawk)
• Te Rauone
• Long Beach
• Warrington
• Karitane
• Waikouaiti (in the vicinity of Matanaka Dr)

Recently Published images

Images in banners and galleries in two New Zealand surf websites at
www.surfbreak.org.nz

and at www.seventhwave.co.nz


KIWISURF 112
coverage of the South Island Champs, and an opening DPS which is also available as a wallpaper download from the KIWISURF website here.

Tonight in Dunedin

Govt. Consults on Climate Change Negotiations

Location: Skeggs Gallery, Muncipal Chambers

Time:7:30PM Thursday, July 9th

Climate Change

Registration is not essential but is recommended. If you cannot make your local consultation you can show support by signing on - www.signon.org.nz
www.climatechange.govt.nz to register
Public meetings

Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch meetings have already happened.

Queenstown
Icon Room, Heritage Hotel, Queenstown.
Fri 10 July 7.30pm 9pm

Hamilton
Waikato Room, SkyCity Hamilton, Hamilton.
Mon 13 July 7.30pm 9pm

New Plymouth
Conference Room, Plymouth International, New Plymouth.
Tues 14 July 7.30pm 9pm

Napier
Ocean Suite, East Pier, Hardinge Road, Napier.
Wed 15 July 7.30pm 9pm

Nelson
Waimea Room, Rutherford Hotel, Trafalgar Square, Nelson.
Fri 17 July 7.30pm 9pm

Video Produced pro bono by Splashroom Media Dunedin, New Zealand
www.splashroom.co.nz

::VID :: SISA tagteam Challenge 2009

SISA Tagteam Challenge 2009 from Nic Reeves on Vimeo.

Held on the 27th of June 2009 at North New Brighton.
Filmed on a Canon HV30 with a drink bottle as a tripod, sorry about the shakes.

From the SISA website:
article by Haydo.

Northside Boardriders have won the South Island Tag team event for the second year in a row.

Northside showed too much class with South Island open champ Hayden Brain, Leilani Brain, Mike Oakley, groms Taylor Oneill and Sam Courtney all catching there 2-3 waves in the allocated time.
In small 2ft close outs Northside finished with 30 seconds to go to get the 5 point bonus and edge out the combined Dunedin team into 2nd. North Wai 3rd just beating the tubular belles team in 4th- just.
Northside took the $250 cash for a new ping-pong table, bragging rights and may of impressed there soon-to-be major sponsor (?) with another top result.

R.I.P Amma

Amma, our family pet guinea pig died today, she was 4 and a half years old. She has been living with my daughter Amber in Ashburton for the last two years. She is pictured above with her best mate Ishana (longhaired one). And below with her son Fugly (on the left) who lives with me still in his apartment in my studio.

Amma was a purebred Crested Black Point Himalayan. She mated with Floyd (he passed away march 2007), who is always looking over this blog in the title banner bottom left , and they had Fugly.
Useless facts from my past about why I love guinea pigs:
Some people have cats, dogs or birds etc, but I have always loved guinea pigs. I used to breed and show purebred guinea pigs (cavies) from 1987 to 1999, where I travelled New Zealand showing and judging them and running the Otago Cavy Club. Over that time I usually had on average 200 in my caviary, over 12 years I bred about two thousand purebreds.
I kept four generation pedigree papers, selective breeding programmes, and mapped coat colour genetics to improve the standards. I studied and became a vet nurse, and wrote two scientific papers on the social behaviour of cavies, and one on skin diseases of cavies. I also ran a guinea pig rescue.

Blackhead lowered to another level

How about those north east winds at Blackhead..

Finding that the headland is not providing the same protection from the nor-easters as it used to?
A recent stage of lowering/levelling has just been completed.
Above and below, photos taken on the first of July 2009

Pics below:
31st December 2008

19th October 2008

Now, how far is this quarrying going to go?

answer:
In 1985 Fulton Hogan had plans to mine the centre of the site to 50 metres below sea level and then blast an opening into the ocean creating a safe boat harbour.
Eventually through negotiations with the group 'Friends of Blackhead' a covenant was drawn up with the Department of Conservation in 1991 to protect the outer rock formations, including the Roman Baths and the Dock.
This is why the large prominence remains untouched at the end of the headland, so spill does not fall down the slopes to the sea and ruin the protected rock formations.

.

If it wasn't for the group 'Friends of Blackhead' we may very well have ended up with my 'artists vision' 'D' near the end of this century, which would mean the disappearance of Blackhead headland altogether! No more sheltered surfing there in the nor-easter.
There is still the real possibility of 'C' developing, which in my eyes seems the only way the covenant can be preserved and mining can continue in the predicted volumes as close to the original intention as possible.
B is where we are at now, today.
A is from a photo taken in the early 1980's - photo courtesy of Lloyd Godman, the red line above the headland traces the natural landfall outline. The coloured arrows point to the same rock formations in A and B. these photos are taken on slightly different angles, but still illustrate the picture.

R.I.P Jonathan McCarthy

Founder of S.E.A. (Surfers Environmental Advocacy) local Sumner surfing identity and lawyer Jonathan McCarthy passed way on June 24th. A funeral service was held for Jonathan yesterday in Christchurch attended by family, friends and surfers from throughout the country. ‘Fang’ was held in huge regard by everyone who knew him with St Anne’s Church packed to overflowing with attendees spilling out to the street. A great send off was held to celebrate his life and the local crew all went for a surf after the service.

There will be a paddle out at 9.00am Sunday 5th July at Sumner beach in front of the clock tower to celebrate his life. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Jonathan was a tireless campaigner as an environmentalist and put in countless hours lobbying at all levels to protect surfer’s interests and preserve and protect our coastal treasures.
He is a huge loss to the local community and surfers throughout New Zealand.

He is survived by his adored wife Di and daughter Rima. A trust fund has been set up for his daughter Rima with donations to be sent to Trust Fund for Rima Box 17582 Sumner, Christchurch.
Guardian of the sea, protector of the environment, champion of the underdog, kia kaha brother.

Payments can be made by cheque payable to,

White Fox and Jones fco Rima McCarthy Trust
and can be posted to White Fox and Jones at PO Box 1353 Christchurch 8140
Payments may be made by electronic banking to
White Fox and Jones Trust Account BNZ Christchurch Branch 020800 0548015 00,
reference Rima McCarthy Trust 38327.1.

Kua hinga koe te totara nui, te kaitiaki o te taiao
You the great totara tree the guardian of the environment have fallen
Hoki atu i te rangimaarie i runga i to paparoa ki nga ngaru roa o te Kaihanga
Go in peace on you longboard to the endless waves of our creator
E kore rawa koe e warewaretia
You will never be forgotten
Haere atu ra e hoa

Farewell our friend

Above article sourced from www.surf.co.nz

Another article sourced from The Press by MARC GREENHILL

SISA tag team event

Saturday at noon on the 27th June, the SISA tag team event was held at North New brighton.
5 teams entered.. I don't know the results, but Nic Warrens team wasn't last, and the combined Dunedin team was third. Winning team took $250 cash.

I didn't take my camera up to Christchurch as it is not working, I took the photos above with my video camera. I have a little video I am editing for the tag team event, which should be up in the next few days.
Apologies for the sparse photos and posts lately, as I said, my camera is not working, and I'm trying to sort out how I'm going to get it fixed if at all, it seems the shutter has gone in it.