Pity the poor tourist. This is on the main route between Auckland International Airport and the CBD at the corner of Manukau Road and Great South Road - or should that be TH CRNR F MNK RD ND GRT STH RD. It's a five road intersection where, perversely, you take the very minor looking Alpers Avenue on the left to get on to the motorway and onwards to the CBD.
Like our motorway signage, it's great if you've lived here for a while and know where you are going. Otherwise, not so much.
Chatoyancy is the optical property of the surface of a natural material such as wood to give the illusion of depth or three dimensions.
My lovely wife booked me on a two week course at the Centre for Fine Woodworking earlier this year. The Centre is based just out of Nelson, N.Z. and runs short and full time courses.
The project was a wall cabinet with a curved or 'coopered' door, and shelves and a small drawer inside.
We were offered a selection of different woods to use for the drawer front. I jumped at the chance to nab a piece of rippled New Zealand Red Beech (Nothfagus fusca). When caught in the right light it has the appearance of a drawn curtain.
For the last year or so I have watched the construction of three blocks of eight terraced houses take shape in Auckland's Millwater subdivision. Nice, a bit of medium density development to deal with the housing shortage.
One block is now finished, one nearly done and the third is being framed up. Every unit is the same, with a pleasant garden and a set of steps leading up to a... blank wall.
Now, I'm sure the designer had his or her reasons for this, but it's all a bit post-modern in a post-post-modern world for me. Maybe the new owners enjoy their isolation. The message is certainly "Don't knock on our front door - we don't have one!"
This blog is not about scuba diving or wet sand, or any sand for that matter but as I sit here listening to equinox winds howling outside and cold spring showers periodically sheeting horizontally against the building I wistfully think back to 2005 and somewhere a long way away.
The Republic of Maldives, where I worked for the government for six months, and in my leisure time scuba dived in warm, clear water (There is not a lot else to do in the Maldives). This photo was taken by my dive buddy Rowan Duval, who insisted that I be his model on each dive. I must have been the least photogenic dive model he's had, and I'm sure I never made it in to any of his magazine articles but it was a memorable experience and it provided a nice counterbalance to working on the densely populated island city of Malé in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
