We just have earthquakes ... and volcanoes.

“Happiness is NOT the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.” 

~ Steve Maraboli

Early morning reflections on the way to the market in Orewa on Saturday

Wouldn’t you know it.  The middle lemming is away in Christchurch this weekend and the country has once again been rocked .... quite literally .... by earthquakes.  The earthquakes have mostly had their epi-centre in the Cook Straight this time so have been felt more strongly in the centre of the country, not in Christchurch. 

Her earlier text to me said not to worry as there was only a little shake in Christchurch.

I guess other countries have their heat waves and flooding and out-of-control fires .... we just have earthquakes .... and volcanoes.

Mostly dormant ones of course.

Yesterday saw us walking around the rim of one of Auckland’s oldest volcanoes. 

The Pumphouse was built in 1905 to provide fresh water to the North Shore.
It's now a centre for the performing and visual arts in the city.

Exploring unexplored areas after markets is becoming something of a pattern.  Whilst we’ve travelled a lot around North Island there are so many unexplored areas closer to home that we haven’t yet discovered.  Being out and about on a Saturday afternoon after a market tends to lend to satisfying this impulse.

The Pumphouse Theatre

Yesterday we explored Lake Pupuke.  To all intents and purposes Lake Pupuke looks like any other inland body of water but it’s actually a volcano, filled to the brim with fresh water.   

Yep, fresh water NOT sea water despite being just 200m from the sea.

The hound was really eager to swim but Lake Pupuke is an ‘on-leash’ area so she had to restrain herself.  I don’t think the geese or  swans would have taken too kindly to her swimming

 ... and neither would the ducks.  They had issues enough!

One young male mallard was being taken to task by a female.  I’ve never thought of ducks as being particularly aggressive but this young mallard was being given a hiding of note.  It was compelling to watch and ended with the male, quite literally, walking on water.  His little orange legs and feet were whirling like propellers as he sought sanctuary from his oppressor.

A fascinating few minutes.

It’s the little things that wake me up to how little I know about this world we live in.  There were some rather large rather plump white geese at Lake Pupuke too.  We come across grey geese from time to time but I’ve seldom got up close and personal with a white one.  

I hadn’t realised what amazingly beautiful eyes they have .... beautiful blue eyes to be precise!

Who would have thought that a goose would have such piercing blue eyes!

A little bit of research ... yep, courtesy of google .... found me a name for this type of goose.  It’s an Emden Goose and is one of the most popular of domestic geese because of it’s size and the speed with which it reaches maturity.

THIS goose is the very image of what most people think a goose should look like ... but how many people ever picture a goose having bright blue eyes!

More visuals of The Pumphouse Theatre

Land of the long white cloud ...... pfffft!

Volcanoes in elevated states of unrest ... torrential rain and flooding in Australia and in Mozambique ... extreme cold and snow in the UK .... power outages in South Africa

 .... and what are we having here in Aux?

Glorious summer weather!

Land of the long white cloud ..... pffft ..... they don’t know WHAT they’re talking about! 

Blue skies, sunshine and a full moon are the order of the day!

Auckland Anniversary Day, which was celebrated yesterday, was NO exception. It was magnificent. Half of Auckland moved out to their baches and the other half of New Zealand moved in! I participated in a huge market in Mission Bay .... got to see all my craft market buddies AND an air show AND ate Churros and French Crepes! 

Yum!

The gorgeous photos I’ve been getting of the full moon bought to mind an interesting individual called  "The Moon Man”, aka Ken Ring who gets himself a lot of media attention. He’s a self-proclaimed weather guru who uses the Lunar Cycle to predict the weather .... and earthquakes ..... a YEAR in advance!

Some say his science is bogus but plenty of people swear by it.

Every year since 1999 he’s published an Almanac predicting on a day to day basis what the weather is going to do here in NZ.  He added an Australian Almanac in 2006 and an Almanac for Ireland in 2010.  His methods are NOT supported by mainstream science and often stir up controversy.

Despite all this, his New Zealand Almanac is amongst the Top Ten Selling Non-Fiction books most years.  Hmmmm ...... does that mean New Zealanders are more gullible than most, or that Ken Ring’s weather forecasts are pretty accurate?

He also predicts earthquakes based on the position of the moon. On his website he says that when the moon (in particular the new moon) is at perigee (closest to the earth) it may affect the Earth's mantle and alter the magnetic field. On 3 September 2010, on a weekly radio show he hosts, he stated on air that there would be floods, winds, snow and an earthquake in South Island sometime during the following week. 

Early morning sun-rise

That very next morning a 7.1 earthquake hit Christchurch. It was my first experience of a major earthquake hitting the country.  As fate would have it, it was also the first weekend my middle lemming was visiting Christchurch with her boyfriend.

I can remember posting a status on FB that the middle lemming had experienced two life events that I hadn’t .... she’d flown in a hot-air balloon over the Serengeti (a wish that’s STILL on my Bucket List) AND she’d lived through an earthquake.  I still don’t think I’ll add that experience to my Bucket List.

Interestingly enough Ken Ring also predicted the next deadly earthquake. He’d stated on his website that South Island would once again be susceptible to a large quake. The moon would be in it’s closest fly-past to earth for 2011 in March of that year.  On 14 February he tweeted "Potential earthquake time for the planet between 15th–25th, especially 18th for Christchurch, +/- about 3 days."

A deadly 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch on 22 February.

I’m intrigued.  Despite the accuracy of some of his predictions Ken Ring is NOT taken seriously by any scientist, geologist or seismologist.  His predictions are considered to be imprecise, inconsistent and vaguely worded, and his methods blatantly unscientific.

Killing the reindeer!

And yet ..... so many people still buy his Almanac! 

Go figure.