Showing posts with label Wellington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wellington. Show all posts

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Sechs Monate

We celebrate the sixth mensiversary and the milestone of half-anniversary, which we call the Sechs Monate to-day on Wednesday 25 June 2014.

ticket
At midnight to-night, we will remember 25/26th December 2013, exactly six months ago, when we climbed off the Air New Zealand flight which had brought us to Wellington on that memorable Christmas Day in the Sky from Sydney.

CT2013 
(Above): Cape Town, South Africa… six months ago….The last snap of the scene outside our eastern verandah at Dolphin Beach, just before leaving for the airport and the journey to Sydney via Johannesburg. Five minutes later, we closed the door on that chapter of our lives… and….

June2014
(Above): …. Reikorangi, New Zealand today …. six months seems like just yesterday, but also a surreal lifetime ago… Its an entirely different attitude in an entirely different time-zone…

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Farewell to Glory

This will be my last shipping report for the current shipping season.

offloading

The vessel Glory sailed from Wellington harbour last night 10 March around 19:00 (UTC) – which was 7:00am this morning 11 March (NZ Time), and then headed South.

finally
(Above): Welcome to Wellington, Glory. Off-loading done and dusted in ten hours. Farewell to Glory.

welly
(Above): Wellington Harbour container section appears to be relatively quiet, judging by the number of containers stacked in the terminal. This is good news, as it might indicate a speedy clearance through customs inspections. We can probably expect a road delivery to Reikorangi by next Monday-ish, on condition that there are no hazard queries.

Monday, 24 February 2014

Oops! (Blush): 17,000 km Out…

Look! Our Ship, the Hyundai Singapore, which I have been tracking over the past three weeks or so from Cape Town to Las Palmas, to Rotterdam, to Hamburg, to the Thames, to Antwerp and on to Le Havre, appears not to be Our Ship, after all! Gulp! (blush slightly)

Mind you, I do not have official confirmation of this allegation, merely the word of a shipping clerk in Wellington – and I must believe her, ‘cos she seems pretty positive about her facts: Our Stuff has changed ships twice, and has come via Port Louis in Mauritius. I ask the question: Did any of my readers doubt that Our Stuff was on the Hyundai Singapore? (up until now, anyway).

Dum…dum…dum… Here is Our Real Ship:
Geneva

Please meet Our Real Ship:  MSC Geneva hails from Germany with call-sign DDJH2, currently travelling south (193ยบ ) along the East Coast of Australia from Sydney down to Melbourne at 16 knots, expected ETA 23:00 UTC on 24 February.

map melbourne

We shall wait to see the next port of call after Melbourne. Hopefully, MSC Geneva will set sail Eastwards in our direction on a trip of approximately 2,600 km as the crow seagull flies.

AUNZ

The next day or two will tell. Unless they go sail-about to other Australian and New Zealand ports before pitching up in Wellington next to the Cake Tin.

Over and Out. Roger.

Saturday, 28 December 2013

Happy Boxing Day

Ladies and Gentlemen, we trust that you have had a pleasant trip with us, and that we will be seeing you again on an Air New Zealand flight soon.”

The leading member of the cabin crew, a well-dressed fifty-something with short grey hair, was busy shoving a set of red reindeer antlers and a huge “Merry Christmas” banner into the overhead luggage compartment above the seats of Row 1 of the Air New Zealand Airbus A320 flight NZ842, as the craft was slowly trundling along the taxi route to the brightly-lit terminal of Wellington International Airport. We sat expectantly side-by-side on seats D and E of row 6 quite near the front. We had just spent the whole of Christmas Day 2013 on flight SA7700 (operated by Qantas) and with Air New Zealand since supper time.

He glanced down at his wristwatch, and continued, “It is now precisely midnight, so allow me, Ladies and Gentlemen, to be the very first to wish you all a very happy Boxing Day 2013. Thank you and goodbye.”

The plane ground to a seamless halt as the jet engines powered down.Wednesday 25th of December at 12:00 midnight in Wellington. We had left terra firma in Cape Town on Tuesday 24th at 12:00 noon, a long flight to the freedom of a new life.

As the crew opened the hatch six rows in front of us, I unbuckled, leaving the past 66 years of my life on seat 06E, and strode down the aisle to meet the rest of my life with determination and resolution. I shall not ask what New Zealand can do for me, but hopefully rather attempt to see what I can do for New Zealand, albeit perhaps an insignificant contribution.  As long as it is a positive one…

Thursday, 5 December 2013

Welly Where?

On greeting a (former) American acquaintance with the explanation that I would be going away for Christmas, and not returning, he then enquired,

Wellington Where?

I guessed that he was trying to be smartarse, but he explained that he’d once driven through Wellington in Florida, USA.

Like any new immigrant, I’m keen on learning all about my new surroundings-to-be, so I consulted with Professor Wiki and Doctor Google. Short of a couple of other little Wellington villages, there are one or two by that name:

Wellington, New Zealand : The coolest little capital in the World

Wellington is the capital and second most populous urban area of New Zealand. It is at the southwestern tip of the Northern Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. The urban area is home to 397,900 residents. The city council area has 204,000 people.

The Wellington urban area is the major population centre of the southern North Island, and is the seat of the Wellington Region – which in addition to the urban area covers the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa.

The urban area includes four cities: Wellington, on the peninsula between Cook Strait and Wellington harbour, contains the central business district and about half of Wellington's population; Porirua on Porirua Harbour to the north is notable for its large Maori and Pacific Island communities; Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt are largely suburban areas to the northeast, together known as the Hutt Valley.

Wellington also holds the distinction of being the world's southernmost capital city.

WUA
The pink area is the Wellington Urban area.

 

Wellington, Florida: A great hometown – Let us show you!

Wellington is a village in Palm Beach County, Florida. As of 2006, the village had a population of 55,584 according to the U.S. Census Bureau, making it the most populous village in the state.

florida

Wellington was originally the world's largest strawberry patch, the Flying Cow Ranch. C. Oliver Wellington bought 18,000 acres (73 km2) of swampland in the 1950s in central Palm Beach County that eventually would be called the Village of Wellington. Wellington began as a planned unit development approved by Palm Beach County in 1972. For many years it functioned as a bedroom community with few shopping centres or restaurants until it was incorporated in December 1995. Wellington has become an international centre for equestrian sports. Far from its roots as a swampy backwater as compared to its glamorous neighbour Palm Beach twenty minutes to the east, Wellington today quietly draws a wealthy cross-section of international society, celebrity, and business personalities who consider it a required destination for their equestrian pursuits.

 

Wellington Kansas: The Wheat Capital of the World

Wellington was first surveyed on April 4, 1871 and named for the Duke of Wellington. It was designated as the permanent seat of Sumner County in 1872, winning out over competitor Sumner City. Trading with the cattle herds coming up the Chisholm Trail was an important factor in the early economy of the town.

image

 

Wellington, Colorado: Colorado’s Northern Gateway

Wellington is a Statutory Town in Larimer County, Colorado. The population was 6,289 at the 2010 census.

Colorado

 

Wellington, Western Cape, ZA: Wagon-makers Valley

Wellington is a town in the Western Cape Winelands, a 45 minute drive from Cape Town, with a population of approximately 62,000. Wellington's economy is centred around agriculture such as wine, table grapes, deciduous fruit and a brandy industry. The town is located 75 km north-east of Cape Town, reached by the N1 motorway and R44.

ZA

Wellington, Somerset England:

Wellington is a small industrial town in rural Somerset, England, situated 7 miles (11 km) south west of Taunton, near the border with Devon, which runs along the Blackdown Hills to the south of the town. The town has a population of 13,696, which includes the residents of the parish of Wellington Without, and the villages of Tone and Tonedale.

Somerset

 

* Sources – Wikipedia.

Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Not down under– Our itinerary

Despite what the British may think, our destination cannot be termed “down under” from our point of view (mostly because we are down under, to start off with!). To describe our upcoming journey, I would prefer to use the term “up and around the corner” – up to Gauteng and then a-r-o-u-n-d the corner to Sydney.

Unless one is walking, talking in kilometres or miles is not all that informative – I prefer to talk in hours and minutes – we all know how that works. In the greater scheme of air travel, ours is not a particularly long trip, but for us yokels, it seems like forever.

I take the opportunity of logging this journey now, as I won’t be able to use a smartphone and write as we go. Leg 1 (flight 332) is a mere 2 hours from Cape Town to O.R. Tambo, where we get to sit around a tad short of 4 hours. As we take off, courtesy a flying kangaroo Qantas 747-400 (under Star alliance with SAA) and head east into the darkness.

leg0

We settle back in our comfortable (economical) seats after supper of chicken or beef, watch a bit of a movie, or watch the little plane icon on the blue screen doing speeds much higher than my car, but moving exceeding slowly across the little screen. Maybe get a bit of shut-eye – after all, we are flying towards the sunrise, so to speak.

Leg 2 (flight 7700) is a couple of minutes shy of 12 hours, which means that Kingsford-Smith Sydney arrives at some minutes before 6:00am – the time difference added in translates to a quarter to three in the afternoon instead. There goes most of Christmas Day, swallowed up by time difference. Last time we visited New Zealand, I did a bit of a read-up on Kingsford-Smith, here’s the Wiki reference, he was quite a guy!

leg1

After a 4 hour afternoon wait – the boring shift – we embark on leg 3 (flight 842) to the Land of The Long White Cloud, “around the corner” – a journey a  smidgen more than 3 hours and another 3-hour time difference. Yikes! As we touch down at Wellington airport, the official Christmas Day ended five minutes earlier. Some folks are still awake, we hope.

Look at your wristwatch if you haven’t changed the time yet – folks in Cape Town have yet to even sit down to a Christmas lunch!

leg2

wellington airport
Middle Earth