Jonathan's Liverstone

Wild Orongarongo Triffid

I found this Greenhood orchid (Pterostylis montana), aka Tutukiwi, on the track by the Orongorongo river. Sadly, it was so close to the track it was getting stomped, so I rescued this bloom for a portrait.
The plant was about 20cm tall and the biggest I have ever seen. That hood is about 30mm long!

Posted by The Denizen @ 11/22/2010 09:47:00 pm {0 comments }

The value of traffic lights

Moving around Wellington this morning during the power outage, reinforced for me the fact that many of the traffic lights in the city are an unneccessary waste of time & resources.

As many the intersections in the Te Aro area suddenly became "uncontrolled", the traffic ... just kept flowing.

There was the odd bone-head who thought this was licence to charge through intersections, but generally drivers made intelligent decisions, and politely *engaged with each other*, letting each other through.

This was particularly evident on the bypass intersections: Taranaki St / Vivian Street intersection, and the Vivian St/ Cambridge Tce intersections, where large volumes of traffic kept flowing.
After walking around the area, I then drove out to Miramar, via the bypass. Possibly the quickest transit I have made in a long time!

Removing the control systems really does seem to work!

The local transport authority has recently gone wild, even introducing pointless light controls on the pedestrian crossings in Courtenay Place. It's all just unnecessary, and are predicated on the principle of encouraging vehicles into the city.

As an aside:
I'm not sure why, but there was a noticable absence of the constabulary getting out and doing point duty. You would think that their priority would be "safety".
I did see a couple of patrol cars, but neither of them were taking any interest in the situation caused by the lack of control lights.
The team in Cambridge Terrace were certainly more focussed on their fact-gathering mission at a local business, than what was going on immediately around them.
It made me reflect on the fact that perhaps they aren't *really* interested in safety, and have now made the transition to revenue gatherers by law enforcement.

Posted by the denizen @ 11/13/2010 03:04:00 pm {0 comments }

Disclaimer: (I stole this from Internal Affairs.)
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... But then again; I only link to sites 'cos I see something there that's worth linking to.