pikihia

Auckland’s dismal rail service continues.  As of 13 July Auckland Rail says they are introducing more trains, more often.  Well for me catching a train from Ellerslie station everyday there are no extra services at peak hour and the times are even less convenient at peak hour to and from work. 

Not sure where the statement “more trains more often” comes from - does this mean that service reliability will improve too?  Currently the southern line which I take everyday has just over a 80% statistic for being on time!  Yes, that means at least once a week both to and from work I can expect the trains I catch to be late (or even worse cancelled!). 

You can check out the delays and increase in costs for the ARTA projects and also the reliability of the Auckland Rail Service in the ARTA monthly business reports.  Will Auckland ever get a reliable and efficient rail service?

For me, a Tui billboard I made up sums it up nicely!!

written by Hardman \\ tags: ARTA, Auckland Transport, Rail, Trains

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

e.g mouse over the All Blacks site

written by Hardman \\ tags: Plug-in, Website

Finally after reviewing all the quotes we got a heat pump installed in the lounge. It was great timing just before the cold, winter weather hit NZ.  We now have a nice warm house at night and have it set up so when we get up in the morning it has been running for about 15min and the house is warm (this doesn’t improve me trying to get out of bed in the morning though, I still hate getting up!) .

It is a Fijtsu ASTB18LDC model and heats most of the house up. 

written by Hardman \\ tags: Heating, House

Added some more photos, 6 new sets and over 200 photos to look at…..

• Otago Rail Trail - Biking the Otago Rail Trail, Easter 2008
• Tiritiri Matangi Island - Day trip to Tiritiri Matangi Island (A conservation project)
• Auckland Botanic Gardens - Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens at the Auckland Botanic Gardens, Jan 2008 Some weird and cool art (bit $$$ to buy though!)
• Awhitu Camping 2008 - Awhitu Regional Park Camping - Last camp trip for Stu and Ange before off to Oz.
• Xmas 2007 and Gizzie - Xmas in Hamilton and Gisborne, Dec 2007 (Boxing Day, Tolaga Bay Beach Races too)
• Amanda’s Birthday 2007 - Tapuaetahi Beach, Purerua Peninsula, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

So check out the photos section…..

written by Hardman

Off to Gizzie for Xmas with Amanda’s folks and down in the Tron the weekend before with my folks. 

Looks like we might be helping to tidy up a bit in Gizzie this year after the biggest earthquake in NZ since 1987 struck 50km NE from Gizzie luckily offshore.  Amanda’s folks said the place was a mess with all the drawers open, wall hangings fallen down, all the pantry food and plates on the floor and the office a mess with quite a few breakages. 

One ornament to miss the quake was the Christmas tree - the tree was still standing with all decorations intact and only the angel on top had fallen off….whew!

Article, photos and you tube link from the paper here…..

MERRY XMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!

written by Hardman

I’ve uploaded some more underwater photos from our Borneo trip and included some more house photos.  Been busy outside in the garden (rather than at my PC) clearing and pruning the place so we can start to look at landscaping it.  We want to put in a new large patio, lighting new plants and a vege garden (plus loads more ideas) to make the outside more useful.  A few before and after shots for you….

written by Hardman

I have been extremely slack but have been thinking about updating the website - so hang on and it will come with lots of updates and new underwater diving photos from Borneo soon

Cheers da Hardman

written by Hardman

OK, have finally got around to sorting and uploading some photos of our trip to Borneo. So have a look on the photos page. A special thanks to Stephen Wai Kit Chung who was diving with us and sent me his photos he took with his underwater camera.

Yes it was amazing! & Yes you should go!!!

written by Hardman