I have just arrived back in Auckland, too tired to really blog, will hopefully later tomorrow. But here are today’s photos showing the lesser dust storm that hit Sydney this morning. The last two photos are of my car parked at Auckland Airport with dust on the windscreen from when the storm hit Auckland yesterday.

I am tired as so no real comments to be made, but lots and lots and lots of photos.

In quick summary UNSW equals about 4 times the size of Auckland Uni, just massive.

Okay so I woke at 5am AEST this morning because it was 7am in NZST. I used my computer for a bit, had breakfast and then walked down to Coogee Beach, what a stunning morning, not a cloud in the sky. Warm but not boiling hot, almost no breeze and for 730 in the morning a huge number of people about, in coffee shops, walking on the beach, and going to work and school. Also there is still a lot of cars with dust on them from the other day. They look like everyone has gone for the weekend in the bush/outback.

Okay, the storm on the weekend may not have been as bad as first predicted but still a huge amount of water fell as shown in the following photos.

I live near Lucas Creek in Albany which is a little creek that is affected by the tides in Auckland Harbour. Most of the time the creek runs low and for a few hours a day it rises enough that for around 2 hours you can paddle a kayak down it. However, sometimes after rain it does become a lot larger as water runs down the Albany hill from the Dairy Flat and Coatsville area. However walking to uni this morning was one of the highest levels I have ever seen the river at.

Photo taken at 11.30am

Photo taken at 2.30pm river has begun to drop.

Photo taken at 5.30pm river almost back to normal levels

Alright it is really late and I have just driven back from the mountain, I don’t have time to blog today’s skiing, but I do have time to quickly load up the photos. Comments will come in the following day or so.

The annual University Snow Sale was on this weekend, I scored myself a helmet for $99 and then got a Gore Facemask from Bivourac for $32. My mum got some Burton Pants for $115, Gore-Tex gloves for $50, and a Icebreaker Neck Gaiter. Bargin. Now bring on the snow.

This fella was floating about in the middle of the lounge the other morning, I think he just dropped in for a chat and a photo.

Full Moon at dusk a few weeks ago.

Brad in Council Robes

Getting Capped.

The Family

Dad

Mum

Brad and Dr Barry McDonald – Statistics Lecturer

Brad and Professor Ken Hawick – Chair/Head of Computer Science, Supervisor of Traffic Simulator Project, Lecturer for 159.331 Computer Languages and Algorithms and Lecturer for 159.235 Computer Graphics

Brad and Dr Peter Kay – Lecturer for 159.101 Programming Fundamentals, 159.102 Computer Science Fundamentals, 159.233 Computer Architecture

Brad and friend Janice Tan (BBS)

Brad and Cousin Alex Gibson

Brad and former work mate Tina

Brad and Church Pastor/Mentor Mike Donovan

Brad and Uncle Warren Gibson

Brad at the Massey Albany Campus

Brad and Dad at the Albany Campus

Go for a walk!

I was bored and had no one else to go with so I headed up to Okura Bush this afternoon. After driving down the road it became apparent that there was something on so I decided to turn around and do the Long Bay to Okura River walk that is only a few ks down the road instead.

According to the ARC website the Long Bay to Okura River walkway is meant to be 6km and 3 hours return. Well I did the first 3km to the Okura River in 40 minutes. The good thing about having no one else with me meant that I could fly. I was literally running at a slow jog a bit of the way. I also picked at awesome day to go. On the way to Long Bay it looked like it could rain but instead once I got to the Okura River it actually became amazingly fine. The tide was also out so you could walk out along parts of the mud flats to get some awesome photos.

Just got some more photos taken by other people who also summited Ruapehu a few weeks ago.

This is the group of us at the start of the day.

This is about an hour in. That hill in front of us will only take about another hour to get up. And then what you can’t see is on the left the next bit that is that high again.

People so small. Rocks, Cliff so large. This is nearing the top of the valley that is in the above photo.

Just a stroll up a hill.

Party at the top. Pun intended.

Walking across the Ash Field.

Going down with the weather packing into the valley below. See all the ash between the rocks. This made the descent extremely difficult triple checking footing.

It is only a little bit further to the bottom.

Weather getting nice and dark near Knoll Ridge (top of Whakapapa Ski Field) an hour from the bottom.

Last weekend I was at the Dome Shelter on Mount Ruapehu.

This week I was summiting the Dome Valley north of Warkworth. At only 330m above sea level is a quite a bit lower then Ruapehu. And a lot easier ie 1 hour to the summit 3 hours return.

What does Rangitoto look like from 70km north of Auckland? The same that is does from everywhere else. Stands out like anything.

Looking south to the small town of Warkworth

Two trucks working their way through the Dome Valley being able to look down on the road was odd. It looked straight and easy. When in reality it is windy and hilly. Shows you how much perspective means to everything.

Panoramic View looking south from the Dome. (Click on the image for a larger photo)

Well this is me at the Dome 2672m above sea level on the top of Mount Ruapehu. Behind me is the Crater Lake and behind that is Tahurangi at 2797m which is the true summit of Ruapehu (but noone ever climbs it).

This is the second time that I have summited Rupaheu the first time was in January 2004 and the two main differences between this time and last time was the lack of snow. WE HAD NONE. Not even on the summit. Last time we had snow all the way from the top of Knoll Ridge at the top of the Whakapapa Ski Field. The second difference was the amount of ash on the mountain which made the climb and descent very hard because you had to be so careful not to slip. Oh and the minor third difference was this time we got a headstart by using the chairlifts which save you 400m of climbing and 3+ hours of tramping.

This is part of the party on the summit. 12 people went from Massey Albany.

This is some of our party and a whole lot of other people at the Dome using the Dome Shelter as a wind break to stop the wind. The air temp was quite warm (a few degrees above 0) but the wind was very cold, strong and icy when it got you.

This is the Dome Shelter with the very clear warning on it about not using it unless in emergency. Something that two climbers didn’t adhere to last year and almost paid with their lives because of it when the mountain did decide to make an emergency and erupt.

This is the Crater Lake which of course is the active vent of Ruapehu and causes all the eruptions.

These two photos show the damage that is caused when the Crater Lake gets too full and a Lahar occurs.

This is Te Heuheu (2732m) with the Summit Plateau in front. On our descent we cross the Plateau and came down over the Te Hehehu Ridge which is to the left. The Plateau was full of ash that sometimes you went ankle to knee deep in.

These are groups of people walking along the Dome Ridge to the Dome.

On top of the world. Looking South. You can normally see south to Taihape, Bulls, Palmerston North etc. Of course only when there are no clouds. But look at our height above the clouds.

Looking North. You can again normally see almost to Hamilton.

Looking down the Whangaehu Glacer. This is where the Lahars generally run. You can see the Dessert Road and the Army Training Grounds beyond that.

This is the same photo as below, just converted to black and white, and the contrast between the sun and the moon made extremely obvious.

The image is low quality I know. It is a reflection of the solar eclipse this afternoon. The photo was taken right at the maximum point of the eclipse.

This is the full image.