Summer Sci-Fi

Last year, we went to see Summer Star Trek. This was their fifth year of performing an episode of Star Trek in the open air, in Aro Park. It was the end of their five year mission, to boldly perform Star Trek etc. etc.

But they couldn’t leave it at that, could they? What would people do? The demand was still there, so this year it has morphed into Summer Sci-Fi. The first instalment this year is The Shakespeare Code, an episode of Doctor Who from the David Tennant years.

We packed ourselves a picnic and took ourselves off to Aro Valley. The crowd was already ensconced when we arrived, but we found a patch out to the side to set up our chairs and enjoy an early dinner. The pre-show entertainment was in full flow, and required audience participation at times – in particular when they split us into two sides to perform the Doctor Who theme tune, with one side doing the bass line and the other doing the wheee-oooh bit. Tricky when you’ve got a mouthful of samosa!

The show started, and one thing was immediately apparent: Martha had been transformed into Mark. Other than that, they stuck fairly accurately to the script, and performed with their usual set made of repurposed estate agents’ signs. As well as having to cope with being an open air venue, and thus needing to shout their lines, the “stage” is on one side of the footpath through the park whilst the audience sits on the other; the performance is thus regularly punctuated by joggers, cyclists, and people walking home. Tennant never had to work under these conditions.

Nevertheless, they pulled it off, and at the end the Doctor won, the baddies were seen off, and (spoiler alert) the play – Love’s Labours Won – was destroyed for all eternity. All jolly good fun! And now, with the wider remit of Sci-Fi, it will be interesting to see what they tackle next year.

The Trouble With Tribbles

This was the fifth, and apparently final, instalment in Summer Star Trek’s five-year mission to perform an episode of Star Trek, in the open air in Aro Park. Regrettably, we only found out about this last year…but this year we were determined to get to it again.

The production is notably ramshackle, with cardboard sets and nothing in the way of special effects – to simulate the doors on the Enterprise opening, for example, two crew members stand side by side, take a step away from each other, and say “whoosh”. Despite this, no liberties are taken with the script, and it is reproduced word for word.

Our original plan was to go on Wednesday 18^th, but as we arrived, the rain that had been promised for the evening turned up several hours early, and we decided that a picnic in the open air, in the rain, was slightly beyond the call of duty. We packed up and went home, and had our picnic indoors for dinner.

Take two was organised for Wednesday 25^th. We were a little late getting there this time, so didn’t have the prime location front and centre that we’d managed to bag last time. No matter, we settled in for the customary pre-show entertainment from the Space Babes, singing space-y type songs, before the obligatory rendition of The Firm’s Star Trekkin’, with full audience participation.

The Trouble With Tribbles is a classic episode, in which small, furry creatures that reproduce at an alarming rate infest the Enterprise. At the same time, a diplomatic incident is brewing between the Federation and the Klingons. (Spoiler alert) after many high jinks and a bar brawl of epic proportions, the plot to sabotage the colonisation of a disputed planet is thwarted, Klingon agents uncovered, and the tribble problem exported to the Klingons.

It’s a shame that they’ve called it a day. Maybe they’ll be back next year with The Next Generation?

The Island

It was a warm sunny day, so we decided to take the ferry over to Matiu/Somes island for a picnic and see if we could spot any wildlife there. As a predator-free island, it is home to tuatara, weta and also has a thriving population of kakariki. We climbed up to the gun emplacements at the top of the island and organised our picnic there.

Afterwards we went for a walk around the island tracks, spotting some kakariki, but they didn't land so I was unable to snap them. No sign of any tuatara, and the weta are nocturnal, so I had to make do with seagulls and skinks instead.

The following week, I was back on the island, this time with work colleagues: my employer gives us one day per year to take as volunteer leave, and we had decided to use this to help out the DoC work on the island. There are no permanent staff on the island - they rely entirely on volunteer groups and individuals to get everything done, with one island ranger, Jo, who organises the volunteers. On arrival, we were given two tasks for the morning: transporting a load of gravel from the dock up to the Visitor Centre, where it was to be used for a new building project, and sorting the chopped-down branches from some recent tree clearing into sizes suitable for logs or woodchippings, removing shoots and twigs so that they would go into the machine. It was again a hot day, and by the time lunchtime came round we were ready for a rest and sit in the shade.

After lunch, we had a gentler time of it, clearing overhanging and encroaching foliage from the Western track. As we went along, our DoC organiser pointed out a tuatara on the slopes down from the track. Unfortunately I'd forgotten the ABC rule (Always Bring Camera) so was unable to get a picture of it. As we were clearing the pathway, Jo was also checking the bait boxes for signs of mice and rats, to ensure the island stays pest-free. Inside one box, she found a baby Giant Cook Strait weta - about an inch long. In the next box, there was a fully-grown individual of the same species. These grow to about 2 inches long, and are big, fat creatures. I held this one in my hand, and you can feel the weight of them - an unusual experience when holding an insect! She was carefully replaced in the box.

Whilst we were working, Andy had commented that there were a bunch of people in the water swimming on the far coast - we thought no more of it. But when we came to another gap in the trees, we saw that they weren't people, but dolphins...and a lot of them! There were around 100 dolphins in the pod, swimming into Wellington Harbour.

We finished up our work and waited around for the ferry back to Queen's Wharf. Whilst aboard the ferry, the captain announced that he was going to take a detour into Oriental Bay, because this was where the dolphins now were. Fortunately one of our gang had a proper camera with him and was able to get some decent shots of the dolphins, whilst my cameraphone pictures were a bit rubbish.

photo: Angus Veitch

photo: Angus Veitch

photo: Angus Veitch

photo: Angus Veitch

Pencarrow Head

I want to ride my bicycle

I  want to ride it where I like

We'd previously walked from Muritai along the coast track to Pencarrow Head, but had turned back as it's quite a long walk (4 hours) and we'd set out quite late in the day and weren't really prepared for a long walk. "We should hire some bicycles and do this" we said, and as we left the car park we spotted the cycle hire shed that had eluded us when we set out.

On Sunday we returned to Muritai, parked up and rented a couple of bikes. We'd packed a picnic in a cool bag, so redistributed that between two rucksacks - along with all the other requirements that we usually forget when we go out exploring and which are written on every map we see when we get to the park or reserve in question: Plan your trip, tell someone of your plans, wear proper shoes, take waterproof/warm clothing, take water and food with you. Normally when we set out we joke about how we would need to be rescued as we were wearing inappropriate footwear, no warm clothing, no food or water, hadn't told anyone, didn't know where we were going etc. But this time we done it proper, like.

I've not been on a bike for about 30 years, so I was a little unsteady to begin with. Also, the concept of gears on bikes was largely foreign to me, so I had to figure out what I was doing with those as well. Fortunately, your modern mountain bike is fairly intuitive in this, so I got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Christ on a bike! Well, me, actually

We set off down the gravel track towards Pencarrow Head, stopping along the way to admire the scenery and the lighthouse - New Zealand's first, which was manned, or womanned, by  New Zealand's only woman lighthouse keeper, Mary Jane Bennett.

We headed off the beaten track onto a more rustic one by Lake Kohangapiripiri, and sat down by the track to have our picnic.

The return journey was substantially more arduous as we were heading into the wind, which had picked up quite significantly. Also we were a bit saddle-sore by this point, so we stopped for a breather several times on the way back.

The overall trip is not a long one by cycling standards - I think it was about 8km each way. But it felt longer on the way back.

The Soundshell

It’s summer time in Wellington, and one part of the city’s programme of events is the ASB Gardens Magic concert series, which is, as the name suggests, a series of concerts. In a garden. The Botanical Gardens, to be precise, which has an area known as the Soundshell, built precisely for this purpose.

The concerts stretch over 3 weeks, and we’ve been meaning to go to one for a while now…but the weather has either been inclement or there’s been something else happening on the night we wanted to go. Finally, however, we made it on Wednesday.

Many moons ago, we won the quiz at the Shepherd’s Arms in Tinakori Road. Due to the fact that I rarely go to Tinakori Road, we hadn’t in fact been back there (although Nicola visits it every Monday, to rehearse with the choir), we hadn’t used out winnings, which came in the form of a bar tab for $50. Tinakori Road is, however, extremely adjacent to the Founder's Entrance to the Botanical Gardens, where the Soundshell is. This, we decided, was the perfect opportunity to use our winnings, so we went and had dinner there of Thai beef salad and blue cod ‘n’ chips, washed down with some Speight’s beer in my case and a glass of the inevitable sauvignon blanc in Nicola’s.

We’d brought along some of our picnic equipment – blanket, glasses and glass holders, to hold our bubbly. The concert proved to be a popular one, and all the flat area in the Soundshell was occupied when we got there, so we were in the reduced-visibility section on the surrounding slopes. 

Picnickers and pizza-eaters

We could see and hear what was going on, as Jesse James and the Outlaws gave of their best. The musical style was folk, and they played a couple of waltzes as well; they invited people to come up to the front and dance in competition for one of their CDs, but I think we were too far away to take the trip to the area in front of the stage. Looking on, no-one was really waltzing that well, so had we gone down I’m sure we would have swept the board with our well-honed waltzing chops. Another opportunity missed.

Jesse James and the Outlaws 

As the evening progressed the sky darkened, and the lights under the trees added to the atmosphere. 

Spookily-lit trees

The band continued to play until about 9:30pm, then we wended our way home over the crest of the hill in the Botanical Gardens, and downhill to The Terrace.