November 28
Bought a surfboard as a souvenir.... Primal 6' 3" shortboard. So much faster then the 7' 3" Mini Malibu. Have to relearn everything
November 27
Thanksgiving, really hard day being away from my family. Created a video of them of a typical walk i take daily. today is also the last day of my 14 week off campus experience.
Nov 22-Nov 26
Working on project and pretty much nothing else. Frustrated with ocp manual which makes FORWARD progress difficult
November 21
Big day surfing 8 foot waves, learned how to properly measure waves. Also did some christmas shopping to try and get that out of the way
November 19
Went to Karekare and decided to do comparison to Piha: Layout and forms of tourism as well as environment impacts
November 15
The 2nd R&R meeting, this one was an open meeting about where the Piha Post Office is going to go.
This one is going to be a long one
This one is going to be a long one
November 14
Twilight Bowling Tournament every friday at the Bowling Club in Piha. I decided to try my hand at this very strange sport. Like I stated very early on bowling is similar to bocchi ball except the balls have flat sides on them and you roll them instead of hurling them. The other end of the field plays similar as you have the Jack (small white ball) and you try to get as close as you can with your ball. We had a 4 on 4 game. I of course had to bowl first as you want the best players to bowl last in order. You face away from field and put the mat down (homeplate) turn back around and roll the Jack. Then you line the Jack up with the marker and the mat. So now I had to roll the ball. An important thing to note is the ball having 2 flat sides, one side is a large flat spot and will curve/bend the roll that direction. I give the ball a roll..... you really dont need much force behind these balls as they roll very fast, my first 5 or 6 rolls all ended up in the ditch at the end of the field but I started getting used to it towards the end. The important thing about this game was getting to interact and have fun with everyone. Age wasnt really an issue, although the younger folks didnt seem quite interested in the game.
I got to talk to and interact with people I probably wouldnt have really talked to and was nice to see the community all getting together for a event such as this. At the end my team had the best score and I won a golden chocolate bar, Geoff says its beginners luck and tried stealing it from me. He was jealous which makes the chocolate taste that much sweeter =)
I got to talk to and interact with people I probably wouldnt have really talked to and was nice to see the community all getting together for a event such as this. At the end my team had the best score and I won a golden chocolate bar, Geoff says its beginners luck and tried stealing it from me. He was jealous which makes the chocolate taste that much sweeter =)
November 13
This is one of those things I noticed a while back but never really got the chance to go ahead and do it. A study on fences/gates..... yes sounds horribly boring but I've noticed quite a lot of different styles of fences/gates in Piha and out in the more rural communitys. The sheer range of styles is staggering, from natural wood or stone fences to full high tech automated security barricades. The styles in Piha all seemed to either be of natural materials or a very unobtrusive color. I think the fences in Piha are all very stylized to the house and are almost utilitarian in nature. The fences are not quite as ornate or over the top decorated even considering the house or keeping in mind its the first thing people notice. On that note I realized that some of the fences were very unnoticable and blended in very well and could very well be missed if I wasnt actively looking for them.
I guess I will put this part in as a field study as it doesnt relate to my project but I found it interesting nonetheless
I guess I will put this part in as a field study as it doesnt relate to my project but I found it interesting nonetheless
November 12
Today was fishing day. I dont know how many fish were caught but there were a lot. Red Snapper in a little red boat. Kind of a wasted day but I really wanted to go fishing but I suppose that could be included with ecotourism as well as some people do travel around the world to exclusive spots to sport fish. In "Eco-tourism: A Practical Guide for Rural Communities" fishing and bird watching are included as being passive interaction with nature. I would probably argue fishing is a bit more active/passive interaction as it could potentially harm the fish (especially if your keeping some like we did) Fishing by my standards leaves a relatively small footprint if your doing it for the sport of it. Of course not in a large charter boat type deal as those boats use a bit more fuel then a 25 hp engine on a rubber dingey.
November 11
Today I wanted to do a little mini study. I talked to the Argentinian a little yesterday and he mentioned some of the houses on top of the ridge lines and how they must have had somebody on the council in order to get approval to build the houses there. I decided to check this out and how these houses affect the views and perhaps ruin the small community feel of Piha.
Most of the houses that breach the skyline are very Mc-mansion type million dollar houses. One of them is rumored to be a hotel and will be rented out to people in order to soak up some of the building cost. The other one that really stood out has an enormous driveway in order to get up to it and the mountain top is nearly cut clean and has grass. It is beyond obvious and stands out quite a bit compared to the surrounding vegetation loaded hills. I think both these two houses stick out for a few large reasons. One being the sharp angles in comparison to the irregular and more organic shape of the surrounding vegetation. Two the colors seem to be bright and are rather intrusive, I'm curious if a more natural earth tone type color would conceal the houses better. and Three the clear cutting of vegetation for views out of the house. It makes sense for someone to build a house on the top of a mountain so they could have an outward view rather then surround the windows by trees but the houses go above the treeline which makes them stand out even more.
Most of the houses that breach the skyline are very Mc-mansion type million dollar houses. One of them is rumored to be a hotel and will be rented out to people in order to soak up some of the building cost. The other one that really stood out has an enormous driveway in order to get up to it and the mountain top is nearly cut clean and has grass. It is beyond obvious and stands out quite a bit compared to the surrounding vegetation loaded hills. I think both these two houses stick out for a few large reasons. One being the sharp angles in comparison to the irregular and more organic shape of the surrounding vegetation. Two the colors seem to be bright and are rather intrusive, I'm curious if a more natural earth tone type color would conceal the houses better. and Three the clear cutting of vegetation for views out of the house. It makes sense for someone to build a house on the top of a mountain so they could have an outward view rather then surround the windows by trees but the houses go above the treeline which makes them stand out even more.
November 10
Tried doing some interesting pedestrian vs vehicular traffic diagrams at the Piha Store and out towards the beach parking lots. Turns out they are not very complicated but are also very highly focused towards the vehicular side of the spectrum. Also at the Blairs parking lot there is a 1 way road that just seems unneccasarily dangerous to have. Did a little study on that to see if there could be an alternate solution to this obvious hazard. Also due to the construction in the same parking lot it has been a particular problem area and gets a little hairy during peak tourist hours on weekends.
Also checked out how the plants were doing on the dunes and they seem to be doing alright, i didnt notice any wilting or die out which usually happens fairly quickly after planting if they are going to die off. And i would assume that being on a hot dry beach with fast draining soil water and heat could be a major factor to weither the plants survive or not
Also checked out how the plants were doing on the dunes and they seem to be doing alright, i didnt notice any wilting or die out which usually happens fairly quickly after planting if they are going to die off. And i would assume that being on a hot dry beach with fast draining soil water and heat could be a major factor to weither the plants survive or not
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