My sympathies go out to people flying up and down the east coast of the South Island over the next few days. I hate turbulence - especially since the earthquakes in Christchurch - and don't know how pilots and cabin crew carry on quite normally and seemingly oblivious to bumps while I'm sitting there feeling sweaty and my pulse is racing. Actually, I'd much rather be on my feet handing out the drinks and snacks, as it would help keep my mind occupied.
We had a bumpy flight back from Wellington to Christchurch last Friday afternoon. Son Joe had an even worse flight on Sunday afternoon when the westerlies were howling, and the cabin crew stayed sitting much of the way.
Which segues nicely into a moan about the price of airport car parking, specifically, Christchurch Airport parking.
There is now no free 15-minute parking in the main parking building at Christchurch Airport, which was always a good option if ``The Loop'' for picking-up and dropping-off passengers was too congested.
OK, so $2 is not much. But I now notice that if you want to park between 46 minutes and an hour it costs $10 - double that at Dunedin Airport.
This new approach appeared to me to be backfiring on the Christchurch Airport company, because those in the know are now avoiding the ``$2 for even a few seconds' parking'' option and using ``The Loop'' instead, adding to the congestion and making it almost impossible to stop the car for a pick-up or drop-off. Or maybe that is the idea, to then force people to use the expensive parking building?
Anyway, I think it shows pretty scant regard for airport users.
Speed humps
Wakari resident Dave Tackney's hackles are up over the Dunedin City Council's three new speed humps in Lynn St.
``The one that causes me concern is the one on the Highgate side, partway up the hill. I have lived in this area all my life and
``My main concern is that, in ice and snow, the speed bump on the hill will make it very difficult to maintain traction driving up the hill.
``From experience, you have to maintain a steady pace on this section of road to avoid slipping. You do not have to speed, but the pace needs to be steady with no slowing down.
``It would be nice if the DCC did some actual improvements to the roads, instead of making things tougher all the time. These clowns have put this halfway up, and that will make it hard or impossible to get up the hill.''
Spotlight on Mt Cargill
Robin Gledhill, of Green Island - a self-confessed ``science, astronomy and all-round techie loony'', he says - compares the Mt Cargill tower with the moon shots of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
``As you stated, the tower is 105-metres tall. In comparison, the Saturn V rocket that took the Apollo 11 astronauts to land on the moon was 5m taller.
``Hard to imagine a three-stage rocket bigger than our tower, when you stand under it. Never mind the astounding noise that it would generate - enough to be heard in Palmerston or Balclutha.
``One evening I sought the magic of the close of daylight, wanting to be able to see our city light-up from the top of the mountain. I parked by the tower building car park and, when it was properly dark, I decided to take my photo.
``I mounted my camera on the big tripod and focused the big lens on the tower, then plugged my powerful spotlight into the [car's] ciggie-lighter and painted the tower with its light.
``If you enlarge the image enough, you can spot that the stars are not points of light, indicating how long the shutter had to remain open. Many years ago and it took me two days to find this image.''