Some exciting stuff. Lantern Festival and Scavenger Hunt

Well in a long tradition of posting some interesting things that I have been up to here are some pics of what I have been up to. First up the lantern festival. This took place in the Auckland domain this year and is a celebration of Chinese new year. It runs for several nights with fireworks on the final night. Sadly I didn't take to many photos as the crows were huge. The domain isn't small by any stretch of the imagination but the area with the lanterns was so packed that moving around was incredibly difficult let alone staying in a good spot to take pictures. I did get a few of the fireworks too although once again the spot wasn't the best.

[I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU RIGHT CLICK AND VIEW IMAGE AS THEY ARE BEST ENJOYED THAT WAY] especially the fireworks which should be zoomed in on.

Next up is the Scavenger hunt I went on. This is one of those silly activities you do at the start of the year at university accommodation where you generally make as much of a fool of yourself as possible. This year our team, Mercedes AGM (for our initials) won the competition which generally indicates that yes we were the biggest fools. These are some of the silly things we did or had to find around town.

Funniest thing on the Thai restaurant's menu - Check.

Chilling out in the university quad - Check

Selfie with the ducks - Check

Whatever this is supposed to be - Check.

Well that's about it guys. Hope you enjoy this post. I'm going tramping this weekend in the bush so hopefully I'll have another little adventure to share with you soon. Oh and yes figures are on the way.

A bit of fun - Cat Attack!!!!!!

"Captain large ginger cat on the port side" calls the lookout.

The captain sees the beast and makes a hard turn to starboard. To their horror the crew realise that they have no cannon and the beast has taken an interest in these little people.  The Pirates grab their weapons and anything close to hand. Some grab muskets but the bullets don't seem to bother the huge animal.

One giant fierce beasty that is. Can the pirates scare it off or will they be cat food?

 Realising their peril the Crew grab spears and harpoons to fend of the monster. But fortunately for them the cat is easily distracted and is soon consumed by the fluttering of the sails. The crew organise and prepare to defend the ship...

The Giant cat suddenly focuses on something else

... But just then a giant fish leaps from the sea on the starboard side and the cat leaps clean over the ship and dives after it. The captain and the crew of the Abigail sail away as fast as they can to escape. Once they reach port they go around telling their tail of the great ginger beast. Although many think it is nonsense a few hardened sea farers talk in dark tones about the cat of the feline sea.

just a bit of fun hope you enjoy it. I'm working away at some boats and some Oronegrean artillery crew. so there is more to look forwards to in the coming days.

Strange goings on in town!

Well for those of us in little old Waiuku we all knew it would make it onto TV but never when. But last night the White Horse of Waiuku stared on TV.... here he is sorry for the quality as its the only clip from the show on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFSzjdIsGo4&feature=player_detailpage 

meet Charlie! actually I only found out its name last night. when watching the program

Now for some reason I can't actually get the video to work on blogger. but no worries. Now we don't know the person who owns Charlie but we do know a few people in this clip.

yes welcome to Waiuku P.S sign in in Km/h for all you non-metric people

The School is Sandspit Rd school.... I went to View Rd school. Charlie is currently hanging from the Kentish Hotel holding a sign (white building in clip). and yes he has brought great fun to trips out of town.... with us constantly on the look out for him! Once he even turned up outside our house across the road ontop of the bus stop! that was very funny, going outside to walk the dog in the morning and looking straight across at a horse.

found a photo of that actually. I didn't take this but one of Charlie  followers did

A walk in the Hunua ranges and...

... some parliamentary fun. Well hello to you all what a week it has been, both here in New Zealand and around the world! First up My Heart goes out to those in the States, to those in Boston and to those in the town near Waco Texas where the Fertilizer plant explosion has occurred. But Let me tell you of a rainbow, in this week of darkness. and yes it is a rainbow! But First let us look at what I did last weekend.

last weekend the family and I decided to go for a walk in the Hunua ranges, they are not far from here in distance but they feel a world away in reality. the difference in amazing! we were not walking for very long but still here are some very pretty pictures of the landscape not perhaps at our doorstep but certainly in our neighbourhood.

Hunua falls themselves, looking quite small due to the draught

my sister out on the rock in the middle of a creek further along the trail.

past the steam and heading up into the hills

incredible that this place is so close to where I live yet it seems like a totally different country

very pretty, a small water fall not far from the big one

majestic Kauri trees they used to be common and huge

some very powerful water down there,looking down from the place where we turned around after walking for an hour.

Tree ferns or Ponga in Maori (I think thats how its spelt)

a fancy photo, through the ferns

coming back across the crossing, very pretty.

crossing back across the stream

looking down steam at the crossing.

is that a Gollum in the stream??? another sighting of the many mythical creatures which makes this country the home of fantasy movie production

A good Motto! perhaps one we should all have.

 And Now for the Parliamentary fun! this is the rainbow, almost literally! Gay Marriage and Gay Rights are something that in the 21st century people are fighting for, like workers rights, human rights and women's rights in the 20th century the 21st century will be defined by how we react to this issue. Now this Clip I am going to show you is no ordinary clip from the NZ parliament its a clip that shows how great our system is (not how great the government is/isn't), basically this speech is one that has set this system of government apart from the others...

 Well whatever your views on this I think we all must agree that we need more politicians who are willing to put a bit of humour into politics, its a nice distraction from the annoying things they usually do. Anyway the bill has passed which is why there is most definitely a rainbow to this week, love it or loath it this is a step forwards for equality in his country. I am straight but still I am very proud of this moment because I do have friends who are gay and I am glad that they are now entitled to the same rights I am.

have a nice weekend everyone! Its the holidays here now! YAY! so 2 weeks off for me to make the kits I was sent by my Dutch friend and hopeful to make that T-90 when it arrives. and once more I tell you that my heart goes out to those in Boston and Texas and to all others out there who have suffered during what has been a very eventful week.

have a good safe time everyone.

Waiuku College athletics day or....

Never doubt my insanity!!!!!!! ah athletics day when our schools 4 houses; Rimu (red); Matai (green and the best!!!!!); Totora (blue); and Kauri (yellow) face off against one another. Today was athletics day and perhaps the only reason I am posting this is because I am too exhausted to do anything else. I have a few pics for you but not many and yes the first picture is of me... never doubt my insanity, and never think that I'll miss an oportunity to publicly humiliate myself.

as you can tell I was exhausted... running with a drum is hard.

 Now I know the photo is terrible... I didn't take it and trust me I wasn't ready... if you can't tell which house I am in from the colour well your more colour blind than I am. My ears still hurt from all the drumming I did today and I am going to pass out from overheating at any moment. But it was a fun day and what can I say but I just went mad!

I'll let you all know that my hair is not actually that colour.

Also that drum was perhaps the most important thing all day for me, first of all I can barely find a way to get it secure, using my belt to hold it. Later I replaced my belt with lots of string which was half decent but did mean I had to be cut free from the drum at the end of the day.

Well I hope your all having a great time and that your having nice weather.... sure the weather was nice but that was actually a problem with the heat and sunburn... not sure if I am burnt right now.

all the banners going up in the morning.

Totora seems to have got their students helping there was only 3 of us there early on and only 7 by the time the bell went

Getting ready for the 800 metres... I didn't come last which is amazing as that drum really was cumbersome... notice the people already running in the background

some of the 100 metre sprints... I did this also, came last but hey I was there for fun

more sprints... I'll tell you now that its not fun running in the mid-day summer heat.

and now let us cool off and relax, still some photo's from school but as you can see one of out nice gardens

 Well there we are then. I have now humiliated myself in public and on the web I am on a roll today!!!!!!

had a test for my new rules last night. pics will be posted soon, I realised I have to make some major alterations. I almost deleated all my pics and I have had to restage one, a key moment in the battle. but until the have a good day/night

inside the Oronegrean shipyard part2

Well with Peter complete and Paul on the way let us take a look again inside the shipyard and some future projects :-)

Well I have got some good ships already however I do need some more. I need some pirates for my noble Peter, Anne and Paul when (she's?) complete. so time to layout the foam board and take a look at the possible vessels that could come out of the blank canvas... well card and foam.

as you can see I have about enough board here (and plenty more in supply) for 3 ships larger than the current boats

That big sheet should give me 2 LARGE ships perhaps even a brig or sloop I hope so as the pirates will need the fire power to escape from ANNE

Oh what is that a message from the modelling gods lets read

pretty self explanatory and yes I should have made sure the marker was not permanent before I wrote the message... no I am not a modelling god, I wish I was though be much easier.

another message... better do what it says

OSCAR!!!!!!!!

he is a really silly dog

 well there you go and now off to walk the dog... I took those photo's earlier in the day but I remembered them just before I posted and thought they would go well with the other message... though Oscar is still on the couch :-P

see you later guys and girls