I’m impressed… this meteor story is getting around. Check out Google News with the search terms “meteor new zealand”. I figured these things were so common as not to even merit news wire coverage, but I guess I’m wrong.
Extra! Extra!Today at just before 3pm, everyone in the office heard a loud bang coming from the roof. We have antennas and other gear on the roof for testing, and while it’s not uncommon to hear noises as people work up there, today’s bang was followed by a bizarre sound like something rolling from one end to the other across the roof, crackling as it went. Everyone was looking around quizzically, but after a few seconds a silence we all went back to work.
About 20 minutes later, the first chatter of something causing a sonic boom started. An email came out from the HR group saying “space junk” had fallen about 50 miles S/W of Christchurch. Then there were reports of the fire department heading to the East side of CHC. The local newspaper site The Press was overloaded and had little more information, confirming only that lots of people heard the bang. In the next half hour, additional news about people seeing fireballs in the sky pretty much locked in the meteor theory.
As of tonight I’ve read countless statements of people hearing and seeing this event right up and down the South island, though it seems that Canterbury heard the brunt of the big bang. I’ve very disappointed that there are no pictures of a smoldering paddock in rural NZ, nor even a fuzzy cell phone picture of the fireball. The Press still says “pictures soon”, so maybe someone is holding out for the big bucks on an exclusive photo.
So until there is more real info, I’ll close with an amusing quote from RNZAF on the incident:
“An Air Force spokesman said none of their aircraft were responsible — none of the current fleet went fast enough to create a sonic boom.”
It was great — better than the Caribbean IMHO. Must go back, and must stay longer. Have a look at the photo set on Flickr. There aren’t any comments yet but we’ll get around to those in short order.
I received the following email today which just made my day:
Hello Kalafut
You have taken a very nice picture of the French Farm
winery . At the moment I am trying to find some photos for
a special edition on vineyards and wineries for the New
Zealand magazine Cuisine and this photo would be perfect. I
was wondering whether you would give your permission for us
to publish the image in the magazine. It would of course be
credited with your name. If you were happy with this, we
would need a reasonably large resolution for printing
(300dpi)
Please let me know what you think.
With kind regards
Sybille
I knew that $25 Flickr Pro account would pay off. I’ve always dreamed of being published in “NZ Cuisine”! And the photo in question is hardly stand out… Just a building, lots of parking lot and kind of washed out. Nonetheless, I see coffee table edition of Cuisine in our future 🙂
| In the morning just after sunrise (provided we see the sun on that particular day), we’re treated to a fantastic view of the Southern Alps due east of Christchurch. As you can see, they’re snow covered–very much so this year. NZ has had a lot of precipitation this winter, and that’s making for a very good ski season. This weekend we’ll check it out for ourselves at Mt. Hutt. |  |
| The ski field is only about 1 1/2 hours from Christchurch, but the road conditions deteriorate enough that chains are required. This chain thing is a new one to me and I was shocked at the price: $250-350 NZD for a pair!?! But that’s for the good ones. A decorative set that will get you past the checkpoint only runs $98, seen here in all their flimsy glory. |  |
I’ve got a new friend :-). He visits me almost everyday. He loves sunning himself on top of the grill, oh what a life!! It’s going to be cold again this weekend, so I suppose my dear friend will not be keeping me company.
Jim’s been away to Japan, and I am on a mission…. to get away from winter 😉
Well, I have just booked our winter vacation away from the rain and cold. Jim and I are going to FIJI 🙂
Just before work there was enough light to take some photos.
…and raining and blowing and generally nasty out. I’d heard that it would be pandemonium here when it snowed, since they get practice with it about once a year, so I’m quite looking forward to seeing what disorder results. I could tell something was awry when the morning DJs who wake me up were overly giddy and talking about school closings. (They’re even playing “The Flight of the Valkyries” during the weather/traffic report which means it’s really bad.) It’s still dark here and while I did see some snow on a neighbor’s roof, the roads looked perfectly fine. No photos just yet…
I thought I’d have to wait a bit longer for this given that it was about 65F only two days ago, but weather calamity strikes NZ! Snow here and down the East coast, tornadoes and floods on the West coast. Bring it on, Tasman Sea.
Well our broadband has decided to revert back to pre-56k modem speeds. It’s shockingly bad how unusable most every web service is at these speeds. I spent a good 3o minutes on the phone with the Xtra tech support and they’re actually taking an interest and seem rather competent. My fear is that there is something with the neighborhood service that they won’t fix, as I’ve seen some little newsletter blurbs about crap internet service in Westmorland. If it stays at 26k, we’re breaking our lease and moving! No satellite TV is tolerable, but dying internet offends my post-1998 values.
Feel free to rub in just how snappy your connection is by clicking here.