The section of road through the top of the Mamakus on the way to Rotorua is one of my favourite drives, the volcanic rock formations are just so unusual. My favourite is what I call the Jesus Rock.
Sadly, due to its distance from the road my 20mm lens does not do the scene justice and this image has been severely cropped. It has had contrast heavily pushed in post processing just for the special cloud effect.
Kohi Beach
Wow, it is finally done ! My house has been pretty much cleared of all its stuff. Just waiting for the guy who is going to pick up the TV and then the last of the furniture is gone. All that is left are a few personal belongings that I will take with me when I go dossing for the next 3 weeks, a couple of boxes to go into storage after breakfast tomorrow and Cheeky the cat. If hasn’t done a runner today – he was here this morning for breakie but I haven’t seen him since. I was hoping to take him to his new home today but it will have to wait until tomorrow morning now.
Most of my furniture has been taken by my youngest son, Aiden, he will use some and store some at his flat. I am not really interested in having any of it back again.
The only piece of furniture I am keeping is a beautiful coffee table Domenic (my oldest son) made me for a Christmas present 3 years ago. I am renting a 1 * 2 metre storage unit which i have crammed full of books, clothes and other bits and pieces over the past week. The coffee table and final box load will go in tomorrow morning.
So, tonight is my last night in the house and I am camping in my own bedroom ! Tomorrow I clean and pack my gear and shut the doors for the last time.
House – I have some good memories but I never did like you !
Summer was a gift to my oldest son, Domenic, a few years ago. Unfortunately Dom is now living in Queensland now and cannot look after his cat.
I have tried to re-home him myself, but that has proven unsuccessful, so this morning I took him to the SPCA for re-homing. I am sure they will have no issues finding him a home as he is a very affectionate cat. Though he has taken cat laziness to a whole new level!
With strands of white fur stuck to most of my clothes I will be taking him where ever I go.
My daughter Meliesha has been living in Europe, mainly in the UK, for over two years now and has come home for Christmas and a bit of summer sun.
Sadly, I move out of the house in three days and will be dossing at friends myself so she cannot stay with me more than a couple of nights, the house is looking fairly sparse as well. She also had to spend this morning sorting through her old possessions to work out what needs to be stored or thrown away, so not the best welcome home in the world.
It is awesome to have her home and great to see she is well and still smiley and still loses everything in five minutes and is exactly the same as when she left, except she has a funny English accent and says “quid” and “sofa” and “sweets”.
This banner was hung on the fence up my drive way when we arrived from the airport. Mel has the bestest friends and brothers.
Cheeky is about fifteen years old and has been the family cat since he was a kitten. He is a bit like me and is not the most social guy in the world and definitely didn’t have a lot of time for the other cats. That scowl on his face is pretty much his default look (yellow thunder ?)
He lives outside most of the time, comes round for food twice a day, and the occasional scratch behind the ears. He obviously knows something is up as he spent 20 minutes lying on my chest on Friday as I was slobbed on the couch reading a book, I cannot remember the last time he lay on me.
At the weekend one of my oldest friends volunteered to home him when I left, which was just fantastic as I really didn’t want to have to send him to the SPCA for his final days.
I will miss the grumpy little bugger.
Taken at the new Auckland City Gallery.
On Friday night Fetus Productions and The Features performed at the Kings Arms as part of the Flying Nun 30th Anniversary series. Both bands featured Jed Town. The last time I saw Fetus Productions was at the Windsor Castle in 1985 and they were possibly the loudest band I have seen, I must look for any photos from that gig (edit – I found 1 only, below)
They were OK, Features were better on the night and they played City Scenes which was cool, they didn’t play it at the AK79 Reunion shows a couple of years back.
Jed Town – Fetus Productions at the Windsor Castle, 1985
I went for a short run around the back of Huia yesterday and passed the awesome Tom Thumb kauri tree.
Where is Phil now? 
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