And now for a few comments about modern information technology, which some of you may not particularly appreciate. Being both an old curmudgeon and a Luddite*, I do have considerable misgivings about a lot of this new technology. Certainly, there is some very clever work behind it, and a huge range of possibilities opened up, but I do think many people get captivated by all the colour and movement and may not be much thinking about the value of what they're doing. To me, a lot of the acitivity is simply entertainment, and that includes many uses seen by others as "educational". How much time must some people spend messing about with all these tools? How do they avoid the routine demands of life? It all looks quite interesting, but reminds me of the remark, "Computers can't teach you to think". Maybe I need a creativity injection. A separate issue is the constant poor performance and unreliabilty of IT systems. Things just don't work with much consistency. I suspect we push demands on IT systems to the level of their best performance rather than what is typical. By the way, I'm not anti-IT. I use my home computer for a couple of hours each day, but it's fairly mundane stuff; word processing, spreadsheets, collecting information from the 'net, email and photo-imaging. Computers are a great way to access, store and organise information and I wouldn't be without one, but for me, it's a tool to use thoughtfully, not an activity for its own sake.


Well, there's a bit of a rave for you all; should get things going. :-)


* I'll be around to break your weaving frames later in the day.


Here's the sort of technology I like. It's the 1912 vintage steamship "Earnslaw" on Lake Wanaka, New Zealand. You can even get to watch the triple-expansion steam engine in action:

Back again. I've been asked to nominate a particularly pleasing tool or facility on the Flickr photo sharing site. It reminded me of the Dali Lama's response when he was recently asked the secret of happiness; "I don't know". There's a huge range of interesting, maybe even useful, tools there. Have a look for yourself at:

http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/03/great-flickr-tools-collection/

Warning: the Flickr site can be a great time-waster.

The only part of the 2006 South Island steam trip I didn't join, was the run from Dunedin to Invercargill. This was due to it being seriously popular. All is not lost; here's a link to a very nice shot taken on that outing, posted on the Flickr photo sharing site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/southspeed/677761536/in/set-72157600582328892/

The engine is Ja class 1271. I travelled from Dunedin to Christchurch behind this impressive machine, double-heading with a similar Jb class engine. 1271 also hauled our train over the mountains on the Trans Alpine line.

This one was taken while reversing the engine at the end of the Weka Pass railway north of Christchurch.

Here's a couple of shots of serious steam on the Taieri Gorge railway, with Ab class engine 663.
The second shot shows one of New Zealand's distinctive shared road and railway bridges. This is on the high plateau, heading south from Middlemarch. No doubts about who gets the right of way.

Here's the classic tourist shot of Queenstown as seen from the Gondola, every bit as high as it looks. An American lady our tour leader met, said that the mountains in the background are called the "Remarkable Incredibles", and they certainly are.

Here are a few photos from my tour of southern New Zealand last year. Much of this was done by train, all steam hauled, including the first steam train in 30 years to travel to Middlemarch on the spectacular Taieri Gorge railway.

Please note these are original photos for which I claim copyright. You are welcome to take copies only for personal, non-commercial purposes.

I'm completely new to blogging so this is very much a learning exercise.