Windy Tops

Tag: wind

  • States of the air out there

    This is one of the views available from the top of Mount Kaukau. It’s not my favourite view from here, but it’s still quite good.

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    Panoramically, Newlands is mid-way to the foreground on the left. Lower Hutt is behind it, and identifiable here because it’s on fire. Panning across the harbour is Matiu Somes Island, one of our predator free scientific and historic reserves. The Kaukau transmitter, without which many of us could not experience the convenience of 24-hour shopping broadcasts directly into our homes, hovers above suburbs like Ngaio and Khandallah. Neither is visible here.

    Further along is Wellington’s CBD. The Tinakori Hill is in the foreground, with part of the town belt along the top and suburbs like Wadestown and Wilton on this side of it. Wadestown, as I understand things, is one of many suburbs which had its street grid drawn up on a flat piece of paper in merry old England of the 1800s. This shows in how amusing it can be to walk through. Beyond the end of this photo would be Karori, including deepest darkest Karori, but I didn’t swing the camera that far.

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    Sometimes the scene from the top of Mount Kaukau, this time seen from the other side, will look similar to this. From not far away there will be a faint outline of the transmitter, if even that, surrounded by its ever-diminishing orchestra of pine trees which become fewer and more bent-over after every storm. It’s also not my favourite view from here, but it’s still quite good.

    Fewer people visit the top at these times, but even last Saturday with rain equal to some of the heaviest I’ve experienced anywhere, I met a sizeable handful of drowning people. They might have been up for a run, being walked by their dogs, or simply out walking themselves. After a few occasions, you start to pick out familiar faces.

    Mount Kaukau is also one of the places where the MetService measures wind speed. The peak is exposed to the edge of all the air being channeled through the Cook Straight. From time to time we’ll see exclamations like these.

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    The Met Service measures the wind from right at the very top of the transmitter, and its facilities were originally installed to provide wind information for aircraft at an elevation of 2000 feet. This doesn’t seem to prevent the measurements sometimes being used to label Wellington in popular media as a very windy place, even if nobody actually lives on the top floor of the Mount Kaukau transmitter.
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  • Wellington from Mt Kaukau

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    I’ve been on call at work in the past few days, which means I wasn’t supposed to wander too far from civilisation last weekend just in case the building burned down and somebody needed to trundle into town and validate the parking of the fire trucks, or something like that. Sunday was otherwise boring so I ended up going for a wander along the Skyline Walkway, which I figure should be okay because it’s relatively civilised and there are many exit points in case I needed to get back to a road or anything. Here are some photos (biased towards the Kaukau end of the walk), and here’s the map of the day:

    [map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/20100214-otari-skyline-kaukau.gpx%5D

    I put on my number three pair of boots, which tend to get used if I think I might need to walk on some road, and headed down the hill. Having left home at around 11.30am after hanging out the washing. This began with a walk down into Otari Wilton’s Bush, not far from where I currently live, then straight up the other side of the valley up to the ridge-line where the Skyline Walkway is situated.
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  • Windy on the Skyline Walkway

    I had the second half of an afternoon to kill earlier today, and went for a short walk down to Otari Wilton’s Bush, not far from where I live. Somehow I ended up on the Skyline Walkway, maybe because I forgot to stop and turn around, but it all worked out okay. This morning was calm and sunny, but by now there was an increasingly strong nor-westerly in the air, which makes sense given a southerly’s due here soon. (ie. Air circles around low pressure systems clockwise in the southern hemisphere so it was characteristic that the wind was coming from the north-west right now… I’m slowly getting better at this, heh heh.) I’d left my camera at home, but took my GPS and so ended up with this map.

    [map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/20091003-skyline-chartwell.gpx%5D

    Along the ridge-top of the Skyline Walkway, the wind was really starting to blow — not to a leaning-against-it level, but certainly enough to cause the odd stumbling. It also wasn’t enough for the turbines over at the Makara Wind Farm to be switched off. The area’s full of high-tension power lines, and they make a major racket when the wind’s blowing through them to that extent.

    Funnily enough, I notice that Erick Brenstrum recently wrote a short piece over on the Met Service Blog about ridge top winds, and how they operate.
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  • I like Wellington

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    Wellington on a fun day.

    A couple of years ago I was walking home from work and noticed a rubbish bin on The Terrace with at least three broken umbrellas crammed in it, which I found rather hilarious. Since then I’ve been trying to remember to pack my camera on days with lots of wind and just too little rain to keep most of the office dwellers inside. Even then, this was the first time I’ve seen anything similar again. It’s a shame there was only one.

    I should make a note that I still need to buy myself a good solid tramping umbrella.

  • Trip: Purity, Pourangaki, Kelly Knight

    I’d seen some weather maps during the Friday afternoon before we left on this trip, suggesting that a massive splodge of rain was heading for the approximate area of the central North Island. This was to be my first attempt at a club trip rated as medium-fit, and I had completely forgotten to bring my umbrella. How embarrassing. I wasn’t the worst off, though. Alistair forgot to bring his shorts.

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    Dates: 5th – 7th October, 2007
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Purity Road-End.
    People: Captain (and gourmet chef) Alistair, Dirk, Paul and meeeee.
    Huts visited: Purity Hut (0 nights), Pourangaki Hut (1 night), Kelly Knight Hut (0 nights).
    Intended route: Camp at the Purity road-end on Friday night, then walk up past Purity Hut, Wooden Peg and Iron Peg. Turn South-East and carry on to Ohuinga, then head North down Broken Ridge, ending at Waterfall Hut for Saturday night. On Sunday, head up to Mangaweka via Trig Creek, back past Iron Peg and Wooden Peg, Purity Hut, and then out.
    Actual route: Similar initially, but due to some weather issues we picked up the track down a spur about half way between Iron Peg and Ohuinga, to Pourangaki Hut. On Sunday, we continued along the track up over Pourangaki, and down to Kelly Knight Hut for lunch, then back to the Purity road-end.
    Electric shocks: One.
    [Photos]

    There was no rain at all as it turned out, but the wind was a huge factor.

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

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  • Trip: Longview / Awatere Huts

    Dates: 17th – 19th November, 2006
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park
    Huts visited: Longview Hut (1 night), Awatere Hut (0 nights)
    [Photos]

    This was a WTMC easy-medium-rated trip. We were originally supposed to get to Top Gorge hut (via Longview), but the weather caved in too much for us to easily get to Top Gorge. Instead, we stayed overnight at Longview and went for a series of walks.

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

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