So, live blogging from the train didn’t work out too well. Lost the cellphone signal somewhere after Otorohanga, but we had a very scenic pleasant trip down.

More photos added.

The train stopped at National Park where we had lunch at The Station. My clever plan of emailing an order ahead didn’t work out. I’m still waiting to a reply to my email about the soup-of-the-day. But Tim managed to get in the front of the queue and get our orders in while I secured a table. The cafe is all set up to handle the rush anyway and got through the train-full of orders quickly and efficiently. It is better though to arrive there by car and take a bit of time for lunch.

We dumped our bags at the YHA, and walked on over for dinner at Sweet Mother’s (where even though it was packed we succeeded in getting a table without any wait). (Had a juicy pork burrito washed down by an 1812 IPA.) Then we wandered over to Hashigo Zake which was also the choice of some other Beervana attendees. And that was Friday.

As I said we’re staying at the YHA. But with private rooms, we’re not exactly slumming it. I was woken by blaring music at 6am through my double glazed windows, but that’s what you get staying in the inner city. Am planning on a lazy start this morning anyway, then find Ralph, then Beervana.

My friend Simon (who is feeding my cat) suggested I live blog from the train, so we’ll see how this goes. Tim and I are travelling down to Wellington for the annual Beervana festival. Just enjoying sliding through Auckland at low speed looking at all the poor sods on their way to work. We’re travelling at low speed because the signalling is faulty. Probably a software bug. We left Britomart at 7.30 which meant I was up at 5.30 to catch a 6.30 bus in. Tim is now trying to persuade everyone in the cabin to close their curtains so he can get a good photo out his window without the reflections.

Some photos over here.

Wynyard Quarter has it’s opening day this Saturday. I’m going to be in Wellington, but I had a walk over there at lunchtime. Walls are being painted, cafes furnished, roads being swept, and tram drivers being trained. It looks like it will be a very nice spot. I imagine it is going to be very popular/crowded, (the new Viaduct?), at least until the novelty wears off. Nice to have a little bit more of Auckland’s waterfront open to the public.

He does pack up very compactly.

Compact cat is under a night time curfew and must wear a bell when he goes outside during the day after the recent killing of an innocent duckling.

Today was the first settled sunny day we’ve had in a while, so like Mole, I bolted out of the house, and went tramping in the Waitakere Ranges. From the Falls carpark I followed the Anderson track and Waitakere Tramline up to the Waitakere Dam (an old favourite).

I could hear the tram whistle as I was coming up to the tramline and wasn’t too keen on meeting it in the tunnel, but as it was we (me and another guy doing the walk) passed the tram at the end of the line where there was plenty of room. I think the tram gives plenty of warning, and you’d normally have enough time to find a place where you could get off the track although in some places it might require a bit of backtracking.

There’s definitely no water shortage in Auckland with the dam brim full and the overflow making an impressive waterfall down into the valley below.

I came back via the Cascade and Upper Kauri tracks. It isn’t the most direct route back, but was definitely worthwhile. The birdlife in the Waitaks has had a fantastic recovery. Thanks to the Ark-in-the-Park project I’m told. The bush used to be dead quiet, but today I enjoyed the company of a raucous flock of tui and several kereru. I recorded some of the birdsong on my phone as I was walking along.

Technical: The photos and birdsong recording are from my phone. (My camera battery was flat.)

To upload them I used Bluetooth. This required starting the Linux bluetooth daemon, running bluetooth-properties, making the phone visible, pairing with the phone, setting ‘Receive files in Downloads folder over Bluetooth’. Then I could hold my finger on an item on the phone, choose Share, Bluetooth and then my computer. And with that the item would magically flick across to my computer.

The birdsong was recorded in the AMR format, so I used audacity-freeworld with the ffmpeg-libs to convert it to OGG and MP3. I’ve tried using the new HTML5 audio tag to publish the sound files, but there is also an old href tag above that.