Category Archives: Outside

Feed the Firefoxes!

On Saturday my friend Matthew and I trapsed down to Wellington Zoo and got to feed the Red Pandas. The chinese name for the red panda literally translates to “Firefox”, which co-incidently happens to be the name of our favorite web browser. Yes, we’re geeks and proud — get the heck over it! 😉

The Red Panda Encounter at Wellington Zoo cost us NZD$60 each, and was worth every cent 🙂 We spent what seemed like ages in the enclosure with the red pandas, along with the really helpful keeper who was telling us nearly everything there is to know about these cute critters. They’re an endangered species, and there is an international breeding program going on. What was really interesting was that the breeding program is administrated, and the decisions for which animals get to breed together is influenced heavily by DNA sampling and trying to keep genetic variance in the population… wow…

It was quite strange, as the first red panda that came up to us would come and eat some food, then climb back into the tree and then climb back down and eat some more. And it was eating the food right out of our hands!

Wellington Zoo has (I believe) five Red Pandas, all of which are extremely cute and cuddly. That said, we didn’t get to cuddle them 😉 Actually, towards the end, Matthew asked if we could pet them, and the keeper said sure, if they’ll let you. I tried, but they kinda shy away a little. They are quite timid and secretive creatures. Apparently they don’t have much of a personality, when compared to other mammals like cats, dogs or chimps.

Anyway, a stackload of photos were taken. Check them out, and feel free to leave comments 🙂

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Things I’m Loving Right Now!

This isn’t your standard link dump… I’m gonna talk about things both online and offline that I’m loving…

  • GodCast.org — Creative Commons licenced podcasts with christian content, especially The Living Word and Rev Tim’s Podcast
  • Flickr — Finding cool photos that get your creative juices flowing has never been so easy, and never so fun!
  • Picasa — Makes performing simple photo improvements fast and easy… if only it would integrate with Flickr…
  • Walking around Wellington — especially to places I’ve never walked, such as the Interisland Ferry Terminal. I’m doing the 10,000 step program, so reaching 10,000 steps before I go to bed is a real motivator… and taking the new camera makes it fun too 🙂 … walking to the ferry terminal that day got me up above 20,000 steps for the first time!
  • Getting Things Done — or more specifically the methodology outlined in the book Getting Things Done (slashdot review)… being organised and completing tasks is a motivator!
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Meeting Andrew Kepple

UPDATE: Andrew Kepple’s website is now at http://tmst.twu.net/sluggy/

I made my way out to Wellington Airport this evening to meet one Andrew Kepple, also known as TmsT, one of the more well known animutationeers. He’s known best for the “Jesus H. Christ vs Colin Mochrie” Animutation series (‘French Erotic Film’ and the rest of the series).

So yeah, I waited at Gate 13 for him holding my sign:

C. MOCHRIE
A. KEPPLE
N. CICIEREGA

which he liked 🙂 We exchanged gifts (yay! I got rare TmsT vids!) talked for a moment or two, took some photos and parted ways. It was quick and succinct, but you can blame Air New Zealand for demanding check-in times. He said will be posting on his site tonight, so be sure to watch it for more hilarity 🙂

I hope to see more of this elusive guy around meatspace in the future… as Strong Bad would say “Man — so cool!” but without the creepy-combover.

Update: Oh, so after meeting TmsT, I took a walk and took some more pictures. My faves are on my Flickr.

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Mr Scruff Returns!

I was in Cybernomad tonight saying Hi to my good friend Benji. He was talking to customers, so I’m browsing the many handouts they have on the desk. I pick up the October schedule for Sandwiches and lo, Mr Scruff is coming to Wellington sometime during November! w00t W0000T!

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Fathers Day in Otaki

This weekend I went up to Otaki to hang out with my dad, Sunday being Father’s Day here in New Zealand. Saturday night Dad was in a Quiz Competition at the Levin Cosmopolitan Club. His team of four won a free handle each of DB Draught as a spot prize for the inflatable bleating sheep they had on their team’s table. His team came 23th out of 31 teams, but another team from his watering hole came 3rd and won $250. Was a good fun night out 🙂

Sunday I got up, gave Dad a box of chocolates for Fathers Day. We got dressed and went to find some geocaches. I had loaded the latest set of co-ordinates on my eTrex Friday morning, and printed out the cache sheets at work on Friday before I left, but I had left the sheets at work, so we tried to wing it. We tried to find GC39AF first; Dad thought it might be at Forest Lakes but when we got there, it was still 3km away; turns out it was on the beach. So we drove up to Levin to find a cybercafe – no luck 🙁 So we drove back to home in Otaki and got my bags. Then we decided to hide a microcache out near Otaki Forks. Have fun finding that one, we had fun placing it.

After that we decided to drive me back to Paraparaumu so I could catch the train back home that afternoon. But on the way, I saw that we were about a kilometer away from a cache or two in Waikanae, and did we want to try and wing it without the cache sheet…? We decided to give GCC747 a shot. After driving around in suburbia down some cul-de-sacs we realised it was on the other side of these houses. Sarah spotted an alleyway and Dad and I got out to find it. At the end of the alleyway we discovered that the Waikanae River was there, and my fears were that the cache was 500 metres down the river, on the other side! Well, we walked 500 metres down the river and got within 40 metres of the cache and lo, the arrow pointed across the river. We turn back and head for the car. Next we tried GCC056, got to the spot the GPS thought it was, and it pointed to the middle of a Toetoe plant, aka Cutty Grass – ie, it cuts you if you walk through it. After searching for 5 minutes, we couldn’t find it – I don’t think we had the right location.

So we go get some fish and chips, eat it at Lindale, and decided to head to Paraparaumu and drive around the water front. We drove through Raumati Beach shops and lo, there was a book exchange with hi-speed internet access. We went in, printed out the cache sheet for GC38E at Queen Elizabeth Park. Drove to within 100 metres of it, got out, and walked down the tramway like the sheet said, and the GPS told us to stop and go into the bushes. We climbed a small knoll and my Dad spotted it! We found it! YAY! Dad was pretty chuffed, as after all these non-successes, he had proof that Geocaching is a real sport!

I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend… how was yours? 😉

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