Posts by Alastair Jamieson
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Islander,
Blast – here, hopefully this link will stick.
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I also love this evocative photo including a fairly unmodified Mission Bay beach in 1860.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Russell Brown,
To clarify, I wasn't referring to Pt Chevalier as a location where a sandy beach never existed - here it is looking sandy (and grainy) in 1940.
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Beach resanding is necessary in Auckland largely because the natural beach processes have been broken by a combination of hard structures along the back of the beaches and other interference with natural sediment movements.
In a natural state, beaches are subject to sediment movement on various scales of time and space, depending on the local shore morphology, currents and the wave energy environment. On Auckland's eastern beaches, most of the original sand has been locked up behind seawalls and under roads. This is probably most obvious at Okahu Bay, where Tamaki Drive conspicuously follows the old natural dune ridge at the back of the beach. In these areas, the sand can no longer move around seasonally, or with storm events as it would have on an intact beach with unmodified dunes. Natural sand sources from erosion and long shore drift have also been reduced.
One of the key things that's assisted the success of the resanding efforts at Mission Bay, Kohimarama and St Heliers is the judicious placement of cleverly disguised groynes, that prevent the sand moving along shore and away from the desired location on the beach.
I'm very uneasy about the environmental consequences of shifting huge volumes from one of Auckland's most natural coastlines (Pakiri), but absolutely love walking down for swim at a sandy Mission Bay or Kohi. At least in these situations, the original beaches were in fact sandy. There seem to be a growing number of locations with residents demanding the construction of sandy beaches where none ever existed.
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Wow - the revamped site looks great! And no one will complain about the small font size ever again...
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That Bieber remix is probably what Sigur Ros have been striving to sound like for ten years.
It sounds much more like Jónsi & Alex, who literally are what Sigur Ros have been striving to sound like for ten years:
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a permanent hole digging and refilling facility
Suitable locations might include Waterview and Victoria Park.
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It's a long while since I had a good wander around a cemetery, but in Auckland I can recommend the old Symonds Street one, hidden among the trees below Grafton Bridge. Old rural cemeteries are best of all, and reading the post I was reminded of this tremendous painting. The online version hardly does justice to the huge original in which you can practically see the wind blowing through the long grass.
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If this thread is anything to go by, the Kaimanawa ponies better look out
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ShakeNZ is what you'll need locally to monitor the scientific relationship between the Boobquake event and actual earthquakes. Internationally, you can't go past the USGS worldwide real-time earthquake monitoring site.