Wild Land

Both Wild Land and Tawa Weather websites fell victim to the power outage that occurred during the evening of Monday 4th February 2013. The weather at the time was somewhat “wild” with thunderstorms passing through and a significant downpour occurring as dusk fell.

The problem, in the lights-out datacentre that hosts the websites, was traced to a ferhoodled data switch. Fortunately, the server that collects the data from the weather station was unaffected and no data was lost. Historical weather data tables will be fully populated on the Tawa Weather website by 10 o’clock tomorrow morning (Wednesday 6th) as various routine tasks are completed.

The troubled data switch has been rehabilitated and steps will soon be taken to improve the resilience of this vital piece of equipment.

It takes talent to get the right balance in art ”“ technical excellence to execute the work, drama in the subject itself, and presentation that strikes an emotional chord in the viewer. Freelance photographer Mark Gee, based in Wellington, has just scored a direct hit with a majestic video clip of the full moon rising over Wellington.

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A police roadblock in the wilds of the Waioeka Gorge is not something that motorists would anticipate. But that is what holidaymakers found during Labour Weekend.

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After nearly five years of writing and 947 articles published, it is time to work on other things, so the Wild Land site has closed. It has been enjoyable work and the responses from readers have been appreciated.

The site set no specific aims at the outset except to entertain on the odd occasion, and inform the readers about natural hazards in the New Zealand area. I feel this has been achieved.

Wild Land was made possible by the generous support of the owdjim webmaster who has hosted and maintained the software environment and provided considerable guidance as issues arose.

Thankyou all for your support and interest.

Wild Land and Tawa Weather are back on line after a short break.

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I was poking about on the Metservice website the other day, and noticed that Enderby, Raoul and Campbell islands were listed on the right-hand side of the weather forecast page. Of all the locations listed, Enderby was a bit of a mystery and I decided to find out a bit more about it.

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Doggone It! Wellington landmark the Loaded Hog has closed its doors.

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Pressure of other work during 2009 has interfered with the preparation of monthly summaries of geological activity, Tawa weather and the status of the hydro storage lakes.

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The ANZAC Day commemoration and holiday fell on a Friday this year, making for a short week and creating that unusual experience known as a Fantom Friday (Phantom Phriday?). So, an intrepid band of Tawa locals decided to break with tradition and visited their local pub, The Roundabout, on a Thursday (Thirstday?) night.

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Yesterday’s partial solar eclipse might not have been spectacular to look at, but it was certainly noticed.

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a group of hedgehogs? This question ran through my mind last night after I had investigated some furtive late-night rustlings in the fernery, and found four hedgehogs.

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There has been some debate about the noise that the increasing tui population is making in built-up areas of Wellington as the birds re-establish themselves. Apparently the dawn chorus is getting too loud for some residents.

To try and understand what the to-do is about, I spoke to an awni… er ornolo… ummm ornitholo… oh, “bird expert person” to see what he thought about the matter. I visited Professor Twitchett, Head of the Birdology Department at the University of Tawa and spent a day with him in his maimai which is located in the branches of a Norfolk Pine in the campus of the local university.

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Radio New Zealand has implemented a number of annoying changes to its National Radio programming in recent years, but one of the stand-out successes has been the Summer Report programme. However, presenter Todd Niall faced a bit of a problem this morning…

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It was interesting to poke around the Wild Land website the other day to see how the content has evolved over the last couple of years. The writing style is still largely the same, but the content has altered. There is less “parish pump” content being used on quiet days and the historical stories have become more focussed.

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Conservation of energy is a phrase that rolls off the tongue so easily in these days of rising fuel prices, talk of Global Warming and Peak Oil, and campaigns to use energy-saving lightbulbs. But the phrase means different things to different people.

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