Author: gfox (old content)

Pernel Hilarious

Yesterday we got out for a tour of the Pernel Fruit World, a fruit orchard here in New Zealand. We got a sampling of fruit before embarking on a journey through the orchard. The fruit was amazing. Plum, apple, Coconut Ice peach, and white flesh nectarine. The tour guide was hilarious and only took us down one dead end.




Halfway through the tour we stopped and fed some animals, and got to play on the tractor that was pulling our wagon.





This one orchard had a huge variety of fruit. Plums, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines, kiwi fruit, and several varieties of apple.





Like most places, there was a gift shop. We also stopped to buy some fresh fruit, and to have an ice cream cone. Perfect for the 25° weather.




Sunset Begun

After the kids were in bed, I grabbed my gear and headed out for a walk. I was hoping to catch a nice sunset, but I soon realized I left our house way too early. Still, I didn’t want to squander my time, so I wandered about taking a few pictures here and there.

I ended up near a river estuary when the sun finally dipped below the horizon. The colors weren’t as grand as I was hoping for, but I captured a few scenes that I quite like. I got a little chilly in the wind, so I didn’t stick around too long. The vacation has barely begun, so I have lots of opportunities for sunsets.

Of course, 10 after getting back to the house, the colours really lit up the sky and clouds. Too bad I had put away my gear.







Tackling Peak

Wednesday (Jan 28 here), we headed out to Te Mata peak. It was an interesting drive, mainly on highway’s, but the last little bit was up a steep, narrow, windy road. I was glad I’d had some time behind the wheel before tackling that road. Still, I was nervous on the descent. Then we met another car at a very narrow spot and he refused to yield ( apparently I had the right of way). Once the other car inched past me, the rest was easy.

However, at the top was a pretty amazing view.








Left Driving

I can now cross off another item on my life’s to do list. I have driven on the left hand side of the road now. It was a little odd at first, but having other traffic around actually helps sort things out.

I haven’t found it difficult yet, but we haven’t driven far. I really just have to concentrate and think far in advance on what I have to do.

Local driving rules are slightly different than home. It is just little things like when making a left turn onto a road (like a right turn by North American standards), you have to wait for oncoming traffic that is turning right and crossing a lane of traffic.

Also, one thing that has really gotten me more than a few times is that the turn signal level is on the right side of the wheel. I keep turning on the wipers instead of the turn signal.

Thankfully everything here is totally laid back. Cruising along at 40 KM/h in our rented Toyota Estima is not seen as slow.

LOTD – Eco-Font

There are lots of things I will do for the environment, but using the eco-font is not one of them.

This font is designed to use less ink when printing, thus … making sure you don’t have to buy cartridges more often? Make sure less ink ends up in the environment? I am not really sure what the point is.

Perhaps if you want to save the environment you should consider not printing at all. No paper is used, and no ink is used. Perfect.

via Gizmodo

Done Happened

The weekend is starting to wrap up and I am a little sad about that. It was a pretty awesome weekend actually.

Friday night was pretty quiet and Sox and I got to watch some TV we taped earlier in the week.

On Saturday I got quite a few things done on the list I made, including a bunch of recycling which needed to be done before we leave. I was able to install some more shelving downstairs in the basement, and put a away a few more things. We also got our car serviced in the morning. I then got to spend some time with my kids. We stayed home and played while Sox was at a movie (Christmas present to some family friends).

Today Sox and Sprout headed out for a bit while Beet and I played. She had a huge morning nap which allowed me to get some computing in. When Beet got up we headed to Serious Coffee for an outing. Back home Sox dropped off Sprout and headed out to walk Yoshi with KaptainK and Digger. Sprout watched a little TV while Beet had her second nap. This allowed me to make dinner and tidy a little bit.

When Sox got home we had a bit of family time, then did a quick errand. After dinner the kids went to bed without a fuss.

In retrospect nothing big nor earth-shattering happened, but it was very enjoyable. I feel like I got an excellent break from work. I feel like I got to spend some quality one on one time with each of my family members (except Yoshi). I feel like I got a lot done.

Concerned Pace

This is a sad story I came across a while ago. The gist of the story is that some parents are concerned that so many cars are speeding through school zones that they essentially have to deal with the problem themselves. They are going to drive pace cars through schools zones, and these pace cars will stick to the speed limit.

It is disheartening that it has to come to this. Why can’t people just chill a little bit. Speeding through a school zone is stupid, dangerous, and won’t save any noticeable time on the commute. Try waking up 10 minutes earlier. Try taking a different route. Try relaxing. It is up to the driver to get out the door on time if there is a place you need to be at a certain time.

I know that kids and other circumstances can throw a hige wrench in to your plans, and that sometimes being late is not an option, but a school zone is no place for dangerous driving.

I think pace cars are an an ingenious solution to a rather bad problem.