Celebrating Dunedin, my way

Last week the Otago Daily Times newspaper was running a photo challenge '24 hours in otago' from midday march the 13th to midday the 14th. To celebrate Otago Heritage week 23rd-30th march 2009.
I decided to participate, hoping to send in a few photos for selection for the ODT pictorial and exhibition. Unfortunately after 24 hours of taking photos of how I saw Otago over that time, my camera spits the dummy and only captures low res jpegs, so I couldn't send anything in.. but they are okay for the web, so decided to post them on the blog.
Top pic: Night timelapse from the track to seconds beach
Below: View of Dunedin city from the suburb Waverley

Above: looking across the harbour to the city Below: Jean at Aramoana



Above top and left: St Clair timelapse. Right: Looking up Otago Harbour
The weather was pretty hazy and cloudy for the 24 hours.. and so ends that.
I sorted through my other Dunedin pics and chose some from the previous year, images follow....

I love where I live, the outer suburb of Waldronville. Above looking from near the top of Saddle Hill towards blackhead, with Waldronville in the middle. Below: A view from the opposite side looking over Waldronville towards Saddle Hill (named by Captain Cook).


Above: A view of Dunedin City from Lookout, Below left, from same lookout towards the city, right from Highgate towardswhere the stadium is proposed to be built

Above top: St Clair, Above left: from Maori Hill towards St Kilda. Above right; Looking through cabbage trees to Port Chalmers, Quarrantine island, Macandrew bay and harbour Cone.

Plastic bag ban

The Warehouse, announces plans to charge customers 10 cents per plastic bag at the checkout; effective 20th April 2009. The initiative is in an effort to reduce unnecessary plastic bag use and to encourage the use of re-usable bags.
The Warehouse was one of the first to sign the Packaging Accord in 2004 (a Government initiative designed to cut down on wasteful packaging.) Please refer to http://www.packagingaccord.org.nz for more information.

New Zealanders: Use a 1.14 billion plastic shopping bags every year 40,000 plastic bags go to landfill every HOUR

** Trial of Government and Industry Charge on Plastic Bags, 20 October 2008
*** AC Neilson Plastic Bag Report, 26 June 2009

The Public's biggest Gripe:
61% of consumers use their plastic shopping bags as bin liners.

Waste Management

The Waste Minimisation Act 2008 (PDF)

The Ministry for the Environment has released the Waste Minimisation in New Zealand discussion paper for public consultation.

Submissions on the paper will be accepted until 5pm on Friday15 May 2009.

Links:
Zerowaste NZ trust - Is a charitable organisation and has dedicated its effort towards ‘zero waste and sustainable New Zealand’ for nearly 10 years, funded mainly by The Tindall Foundation.

Plastic Bag Report (PDF 68 KB)

* Kiwi PlasticBag Concern Research. February 2007 >>> click here to download.

John Wilson Drive to remain closed to cars

Ocean drive to stay off-limits

ODT - By Chris Morris on Fri, 20 Mar 2009
Dunedin's popular John Wilson Ocean Dr will not reopen to motorists, despite the removal of construction material associated with the city's new 1.1km outfall pipe, council staff say.

Vehicle access to the road, which runs alongside St Kilda beach to Lawyers Head, has been restricted since construction of the $37 million outfall began in late 2006.

Since the commissioning of the completed pipe in January, contractors had been using a crane to dismantle the pier used during construction in a process known as "demobilisation", Dunedin City Council Tahuna upgrade project manager Brian Turner said.

Work to remove the pier, reinstate sand dunes and remove an access road down to the beach was expected to be completed by the end of next month, Mr Turner said.

However, DCC parks and reserves team leader Martin Thompson said the gate blocking vehicle access to Lawyers Head, would be retained, with some modifications.

Pedestrian access to the area would be reinstated, but vehicles would be prevented from driving to the lookout until a new long-term Ocean Beach management plan was completed, he said.

That followed a decision of the council's community development committee in July last year.

Asked how long the management plan would take, Mr Thompson said "it will be several years".

A recently completed study of wildlife in the area showed more activity - particularly in sea lions - since the disturbance from vehicles was reduced, he said.

And, speaking in January last year, Dunedin psychiatrist Dr Keren Skegg told councillors there had also been a dramatic reduction in the number of people committing suicide by jumping from the cliff since access to the area was cut off.

Below, clip from August 2006 when the road was first closed

St Clair Beach Resort

Progress on the most recent Esplanade development. Since these photos were taken a few weeks ago, the wooden framing has started on the roof.

St Clair Beach Resort website
And an article that was in the ODT a few months back.

Go for Gold Photos

Well we had the quickfire DVD of images, now for some stills that you can glean fond memories from without blinking as much.

Sun and Clean faces

A few lineup shots from this weekend..


Above Jay and Andy working the point, so good to see the sun and some clean faces.

Porpoise Bay hearings dates announced.

The Southland District and Southland District Council have announced dates for hearings for the resource consent application to place a high intensity dairy farm into the Porpoise Bay catchment.

Surfbreak Protection Society
will be present at the Hearing with their own submission
see the details at their website here

The dates for the pre hearing is 24 February 2009 and the full hearing date will be on 12 March 2009. 99 submissions were lodged with the district council opposing the conversion, 0 supported it. 105 submissions were lodged with the regional council in opposition to conversion, 3 supported it.

Our vege patch now

My vege patch is chugging along nicely!! I have also planted big tubs of herbs (in foreground) of parsley, fennell, italian parsley, chives basil, purple sage, and margoram. Oh, and a lemon tree in a tub that my mum bought for us while staying with over new years.


The asparagus patch is taking off, along with the 6 pumpkin plants, which have sprouted massive tendrils extending to the native gardens. I proudly have 6 massive pumpkins growning, two the size of a good soccer ball. The tomatoes have not fared so well, due to wind, and the edges of the garden being dryer than the insides. the silverbeet has been an ongoing harvest, of which 20% we eat, and the rest is cleaned/chopped and bagged for the freezer for winter.

Man what can I say about the potatoes! we have made two big harvests, of about 50kgs of potatoes, and thats just half of the main garden,. We also planted out the bottom native garden in a selection of rarer potatoes half way through the season, which are currently flowering and growing strong.

Above, some of the the seeds that Caitlin and I planted out in October last year, and some of the pumpkins a month ago.
I have been making some vegetable relish preserves as well. The courgettes are all time, as well as the Leeks! Cant even begin to rave about all the yummy fresh salads and meals I have been creating from our beautiful garden. Its just such an incredible feeling harvesting your own food in your back yard.

Dumpster Diving - Campbell Live tonight 7pm

My friend Nick features on Campbell Live tonight - Tuesday 7:00pm.
Dumpster diving... Hunting through other people's rubbish to see what can be usefully reused. Those who do it say they're just taking from the rich to give to the poor. They call themselves 'waste crusaders' and say they find enough food in the supermarket skips to feed two or three families per night. But the police say it's illegal… legitimate recycling or burglary?
You decide


(ODT - front page - newspaper clipping from last year)
Lets also think of the DCC's Zero Waste to landfill policy
Comments appreciated, even you Neville ;0)

Three minute news item Channel 9 3rd march 2009
Three Arrests in relation to Dumpster Diving

UPDATE: link to Campbell live item

Looking for a wave

Me, Jay and Beano set off Sat morn looking for a wave down the coast, while up north was pumping and crowded...
Top Pic:, the one way bridge at Brighton. Below Brighton Caravan Park, Boat Hire and Brighton Store, who have the yummiest real fruit ice creams, and the best chips in town!

Above: Jay being kind and carrying my board down to the beach while I click a few photos of them before going out. Thew white board is my snapped (by Beano, I forgive you) & fixed McTavish that I did the artwork on with those fake sharpies.. almost all the pen has rubbed off now. Below: Beano showing the artwork his wife Eleanor did on his snapped and fixed McTavish, called the Cosmic Bandito.

Below Jay finds the nose on his 9'6 Electroglide while pointing towards the beach.

Sewage Safe For Now

Anybody noticed and differences in what is seen in the water?

Sea lions picket parliament

ODT article here
published Wed, 4 Mar 2009

Ninety-five New Zealand sea lions basked on Parliament's lawn today as part of a demonstration to highlight that the government was allowing that many of the sea mammals to be killed this year.

Forest and Bird set out the cardboard cut-out sea lions and displayed a real trawl net to draw attention to the number of the endangered mammals allowed to be killed by the southern squid trawl fishery this year. Sea lions die when they become entangled in trawl nets and drown.

Forest and Bird marine advocate Kirstie Knowles said the sea lion population was reducing yearly yet the government permitted the quota allowed to be killed to increase.

read the rest of the article here