This kind of shit pisses me off tremendously.
Oil tanker Hebei Spirit collided with a barge near the South Korean coast, close to a nature reserve and important rest stop for migratory birds, and in a bloody maritime reserve, where it is leaking oil through several holes in its single hull.
Yes. Accidents happen. That’s why you wear seatbelts, right? Then why is oil still being shipped in Single Hulled oil tankers?
Every year, thousands of whales are killed inside internationally acknowledged whale sanctuaries, under the guise of “scientific research”. This “science program” doesn’t meet any standards for scientific research and it doesn’t provide any new knowledge about whales. However, the kiling of whales in the name of science is a very profitable business: The commercial sale of whale meat obtained through “scientific whaling” yields over US$ 50 million annually for Japan alone.
The current whaling programmes are poorly controlled and the effects on whale populations are not considered sufficiently. This so-called scientific program needs to stop. Whales Revenge is “ambitious campaign to gather 1 million signatures for a petition to stop whaling”. They had almost 600K signatures this morning, so they could use a few more.
Visit Whales Revenge and sign the petition: http://www.whalesrevenge.com/
The Kingdom of Tonga is a group of about 180 islands stretching some 600km from north to south. It is situated south of Samoa and East of Fiji. About 140 islands are uninhabited, with the 102.000 Tongans living on the remaining 40 islands. Tonga’s main island, Tongatapu (”the sacred south”) is about 3 hours flying from Auckland. (see Google Maps).
Tonga is also the kingdom we visited recently. We travelled through all island groups but “the niuas”, a small group of extremely remote islands to the north of Tonga.
It was one of the best trips ever. We’ve seen some very interesting things and we met so many very friendly and amazing people. Nothing went according to plan, but patience, a smile and lots of improvisation made everything much more interesting than we could have ever planned.
On ‘Eua the electricity was cut off because a power pole had fallen down (but you don’t really need electricity anyway); the ferry that would take us from ‘Eua to the main island was cancelled because it never showed up and the daily flight was cancelled as well; Willemijn got sick for a couple of days and just when she recovered I got the same bug; a flight from Ha’apai to Vava’u was rescheduled to 6 hours earlier (which we discovered 6 hours late because we were camping on an island without running water, electricity or phone); we called to ask for a room somewhere, but when we arrived there was no staff (they had all left for the night to go to a party), so we just slept on the beach; etcetera etcetera.
Anyway, there’s so much to tell about Tonga but it’s very difficult to write it all down. We’ll tell some of you all about it next time we see you on the phone or iChat. Meanwhile, check out the photos.
Time is moving so fast and we have been so busy that we never just got around to keeping you up to date… A quick overview of our adventures in the past few weeks:
Dan and Heather
Our friend Dan was in town again, it was great to see again him after more than a year! His girlfriend Heather was in Wellington as well and we spent a couple of days eating, drinking, kite flying and having fun. Dan took us to one of his favourite places in the area: Turakirae head, between Wellington harbour and Palliser Bay. A beautiful and rugged coastline with rocks, sheep and seals.
Dan brought his geology book to explain how the coastline changed several times during big earthquakes in the past, most recently in 1851 when the land was raised 2.5 meters.
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Waikanae
A week later, we spent a great relaxing weekend in Waikanae (Kapiti Coast) with a bunch of friends. We were housesitting for a friend’s mother who was travelling. Walking on the beach, kite flying, throwing frisbees, skateboarding, cycling, eating, drinking and playing games… we had a great time and the weather was nice as well.
Eastbourne
The weekend after, we were planning on visiting the nature reserve of Kapiti Island with our friends Carlos and Ximena, and Ximena’s parents who vere visiting from Chile. We arranged permits to visit the island and called early Saturday morning to confirm boats were going out that day. It was a beautiful morning so we thought we’d be allright, but no boats were going to the island because severe winds were expected later that day, so we’ll have to save our visit for another time. We went to Eastbourne instead to walk along the coast, and it was quite windy indeed, but we had a nice walk and a great picnic.
Diwali and Dental Surgery
Last weekend was Labour weekend and many people had a day off on Monday. And what a weekend it was! Sunday and Monday were the most beautiful days since last May! Everyone and his dog was out on the waterfront, from Oriental Parade all the way to Queens Wharf, where the Wellington Indian community celebrated the Diwali festival with music, dance and lots of great food. We just hung out all day and sat outside with a beer until the sun set at 8pm, fantastic!
Also this weekend… I had my wisom tooth extracted last Friday, so Friday was a bit fuzzy thanks to the drugs. Not too much pain during the weekend, thanks to the painkillers, but the stitches are starting to annoy me a bit. Only a few more days before they’re going out so nothing to worry about.
To top off this great weekend, we spent the afternoon shopping for snorkeling gear (we’ll let you know soon why we were after snorkeling gear), skating through town and on the waterfront, eating icecream and doing yoga. The only minor blemish on this nice day was that our car was gone from the big empty parking lot when we wanted to return home. Towed away, because apparently it was parked on a private (big, empty) carpark. You’d think they would put a sign up, but we never saw any sign. Oh well, best not to think about it (or the $190 it costs to get it back) too much…
Finally, I can’t resist showing you yet another magnificent sunset… We are so incredibly lucky living in a house with views like this. It never gets boring.
Hi everyone! We’re still here, alive and kicking, just a bit slack with updating the site. We’ve got at least three posts coming up to tell you about our past weekends, but in the meantime, I wanted to show you this. A 12-metre whale hung around Island Bay yesterday, which is our backyard. We missed it unfortunately… hopefully it stays around a little while longer.
The southern right whale appeared off Island Bay in Wellington about 7am yesterday and spent the day moving between there and Houghton Bay - at times less than 20 metres from shore.
Great new video from Wellington locals “Phoenix Foundation”. Directed by Eagle vs. Shark director Taika Waititi. Wellingtonista said that someone else said that the video was shot in the Island Bay studio, which is practically around the corner from where I live. That’s so cool it must be true.
Ruapehu, one of NZ’s active volcanos, erupted last night, covering its snowy top in black ash and seriously injuring a climber when a huge rock flew through the roof of his hut. See stuff.co.nz for the story and more pictures.
A steam and ash cloud was seen from Turoa ski-field when the volcano erupted for seven minutes without warning about 8.15pm.
GNS Science said it lost the signals from its equipment at the shelter, which indicated “significant action” at the top of the mountain.
GNS vulcanologist Brad Scott said the eruption generated a 2.8-magnitude volcanic quake.
Pilots flying in the area had reported an ash column of about 5000 metres.“It’s below the 15,000 foot level, and rising, so it sounds as though there’s been some ash associated with the eruption as well,” said GNS Science duty volcanologist Craig Miller.
“The MetService have recorded some signatures from an apparent ash cloud on their radar and aviation authorities are already keeping planes clear of the area,” he said.
Skiers staying in lodges on the mountain reported a glow from the mountain top.
We received awesome news just now! The proposed “marine education centre” that was to be built on our beautiful south coast will not happen! Save The Point says:
Hot off the press 9.30 am 21 Sept 2007 The environment court descision has been given in our favour, there will be no aquarium development at Te Raikaihau Point, this is huge news, well done to all the supporters . More to follow YEEEHA
For more information on why so many people fought hard to stop the aquarium, see the Save The Point FAQ.
After cruising home on my skateboard today I discovered one of our Tulips in bloom:
Shortly thereafter, I discovered a nice cold beer on our deck:
Remember that popular 90s song by kiwi band Otara Millionaires Club? OMC singer Pauly Fuemana made millions but lost it all and ended up bankrupt. After ten years, he’s returning to music and released a single together with fellow kiwi Lucy Lawless (she played Xena in Xena: Warrior Princess). Here’s Pauly Fuemana’s story:
Hi, we're Will and Gert. In September 2006, we moved from Utrecht, the Netherlands to Wellington, New Zealand, exactly 18,558 kilometers away, as the crow flies.
We arrived on 9 September 2006, 12:20pm
© 2007, Feestpaleis.net
