I recently figured out how to find Mt Taranaki on the horizon, and it’s quite easy. The mountain is only sometimes visible — best chances are a fine day with clear air and snow on the mountain.
Mount Taranaki on 22 November 2017. Zoom lens and circular polarising filter helped in this shot.
To spot it, stand directly facing the horizon, with your back to the Tararuas. Imagine the spot you can see is at 12 on an old-fashioned clock face.
If you point to Kapiti Island on your left you’ll be pointing at roughly 10 o’clock on that clock face. If you can see the South Island to the right of Kapiti that would be around 11 o’clock.
Now look at one o’clock to your right. That’s where Taranaki might be seen.
Mt Ruapehu, with long lens and filters applied.
If you’re lucky you may also see Mt Ruapehu at about 3 o’clock — it’s just left of the end of the dunes north of the river. I’ve seen Ruapehu much more often than Taranaki.
After some wrangling last year, I succeeded in getting the Council to give us rubbish bins at each entrance to the beach off Reay Mackay Grove. At the time, I asked for dog poop bag dispensers as well, but that was a step too far.
Eventually though, in May 2017, I asked again for the dispensers.
A lot more wrangling went on, but finally, in November 2017, we were granted one dispenser, installed on the rubbish bin at the south track.
Poopod dog waste bag dispenser at Reay Mackay Grove.
Word is that these dispensers, called Poopods, cost around $800 each installed.
They’re very shiny and should resist the elements well.
Made in marine grade 316 stainless steel, it holds 1,000 bags and is suitable for high traffic areas. …
The Poopod dispenser is designed to be situated in Dog Parks and popular dog walking areas. …
These dispensers have the following features:
Robustness — made from stainless steel, the design of these units makes them very strong.
Longevity — fabricated 316 stainless steel, they have a long lifespan.
Location — particularly suited to harsh environments such as coastal areas.
Now let’s hope that those who take their dogs along that track put in the tiny effort to take a bag, pick up after their dog, and put the bag in the bin.
About 10 days ago the winds brought a fresh covering to our beach: millions of small dead blue things that I assumed to be baby Bluebottles. Then, a couple of days ago, thanks to Blackstone — a Waikawa Friend, I learned that in fact they are Velella vellela, a relative of bluebottles, and a jelly fish.
Velella velella carpet the beach. Photo by Miraz.
They are also known as By The Wind Sailors, using a small sail to drift on the ocean surface.
Blackstone tells us about Velella velella.
Blackstone gave me permission to use their photos, below.
By the wind sailors.
Millions of dead Velella.
A Bluebottle, with Velella.
The trouble with dead things on the beach, of course, is that now they smell. They also seem to be attractive to some dogs for eating. One friend down the line has had a sick dog after it ate some of these.
Other west coast beaches have been similarly affected, including New Plymouth:
Department of Conservation acting operations manager Callum Lilley said Taranaki often saw large amounts of by-the-wind sailors wash up on its coastline and wasn’t out of the ordinary to get them at this time of year.
“In fact, it is the time of year that we are most likely to see them,” he said.
“Although they can be seen at other times, too.”
The sailors were at the mercy of the wind and currents and generally onshore winds would drive them to shore, he said.
“They have a sail that sticks up and catches the wind.”
A clear, chitinous semicircular to triangular sail sticks up above the water with a blue float beneath made of concentric circles of gas-filled chambers. Small tentacles extend below the circular chambers. The sail is angled left or right.
I bumped into neighbours on the beach and they showed me a piece of plastic rubbish they’d picked up. Except it wasn’t — I’d come across one of these before and had spent a while researching, to discover it was the gas bladder from a porcupine fish.
The gas bladder (also called a swim bladder) is a flexible-walled, gas-filled sac located in the dorsal portion of body cavity. It controls the fish’s buoyancy and in some species is important for hearing. Most of the gas bladder is not permeable to gases, because it is poorly vascularised (has few blood vessels) and is lined with sheets of guanine crystals.
Porcupine fish turn up on the beach from time to time, so it’s not surprising to sometimes find their swim bladders, I guess. The bladders are curious, firm things, that definitely appear as a form of plastic. They’re not tiny, either. I didn’t measure this unfortunately, but it’s about the size of a deck of cards.
