Yeah, bluelake writes for the internet. Well, GJ does.
Here's some examples.
Achilles update
Back to the slow and steady improvement, rather than the on-and-off again regime of the recent past.
Pumpkins
Returning after 27 days away was a shock.
Ferry
I find myself sitting next to travellers and learning much about their lives. In such close confines, you can’t help but overhear, and it gets intense in a hurry.
Wellington again
Eventually, I returned to Wellington after 18 days roaming around the North Island.
Solitary accommodation
Strangely, I was the only resident in a number of these places. It was a ghostly brush with the past, probably the last time the premises had been thoroughly cleaned.
Leaving Opotiki
Then, I spent more than two hours chatting to a stray possum trapper who returned to the hut after half an hour of my solitary occupation. He had a love of the country, a high level of fitness, and some opinions that were well suited to his solitary life.
Travelling thoughts
Chance encounters with strangers, particularly when on the road solo. The world is rawer when the familiar is not available for comfort.
Opape campsite
It is out with the beanie and hoodie in the morning, an hour before sunrise.
Auckland 2
My directions back to the car were: turn left at the Ferrari dealership, go past BMW on the other side of the road from Mercedes, and then duck up a sidestreet past Rolls-Royce.
Peach Cove Hut
All in all, it was much-needed exercise and a good mental clean-out before my journey through Auckland that was on my itinerary for tomorrow.
Waitangi
Camping is cheap, but not always as comfortable a night’s sleep as with a mattress.
Heading home
After spending the night in another DOC campsite, I took off north until I could go no further.
Tane Mahuta
A sombre witness to our rush to distraction.
The Shining
Okay, the hotel hadn’t been cleaned since the 1970s and had the aura of Jack Nicholson and The Shining; however, the sheets were clean and well-starched.
Auckland
The roads in and around Auckland are diabolical.
Taranaki
My tendon held up, but I’m not continuing with the mountain goat style in the near future.
Wellington wedding
It’s a great experience to be involved in a truly joyous occasion.
Proof of Life Tour
It’s time to check out a few old friends and re-introduce myself to the rest of the country.
Burn Creek hut restoration begins
The preparations are over, the work will be done, and the hut will service stray trampers for the foreseeable future.
Tramping New Zealand | website rehab
The weeks go by, and slowly the list of things to finalise the upgrade rehab is being ticked off.
Week 13 | Achilles tendon rehab
The end of Week 13.
That’s a quarter of a year, the length of time I need to rehabilitate my torn Achilles tendon.
Achilles ping!!
Ping!!
An Achilles tendon tear. Only 4 mm across the tendon as it turned out, but it also had a 5 mm longitudinal tear.
Burn Creek Bivvy | Part 3
I volunteered to write the Scope of Work report, which needed a visit to measure up and assess what work was actually required.
Burn Creek Bivvy | Part 2
Sporadic permanent markers could be chanced upon, but generally, it was just a day-long bush bash to get through the undergrowth of regenerating red and mountain beech trees.
Burn Creek Bivvy | Part 1
And that is how, as a 16-year-old, I was part of a group of boys that set off for Burn Creek Bivvy.
Hot water cylinder
A replacement hot water cylinder had languished in my living room for many months, getting comments from visitors about my new sculpture, and then, much later, “Oh, that lump is still here”.
Living room transformation
The exposed beams and rafters in my living room were a vexation to my spirit. They had to go.
Rakiura, trip 11, I think
The Northwest Circuit has been my go to tramp for winter expeditions on many occasions.
South Marlborough, second time around
Mission accomplished, but after staggering over Blind Saddle six times in the past five years, up 1200 m from near sea level, perhaps I’ll avoid this area for a while.
Mid-winter 2022
Much better to do something positive, particularly as my body is starting to show wear and tear, and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to crack out these two week + expeditions.
Roaring Lion Hut, May 2022
A now or never moment. If I didn’t do it in these perfect conditions, I never would.
April blues
Will I ever learn?
Printing out
What’s the point of having 250,000 images on my computer if no one gets to appreciate them.
Gone viral
For some reason, my answer is resonated with the world, and has gone viral.
Hut bagger
As it turned out, I’ve visited plenty.
The joy of camping
My third day had a high level of energy expenditure, and being blown away by a possible camping site, thought I might as well really experience, the, err, experience.
Out of town
In the last year I’ve spent plenty of time in the New Zealand backcountry. Almost three months in total, on a number of different expeditions.
Lake Monowai route guide
My primary enthusiasm is to add content rather than modify the existing.
Lake Monowai
Lake Monowai was a clear winner.
More Rakiura
Man, did I need respite from carrying a heavy pack?
Rakiura for the tenth time
On the third day, I found that the country was plunged into the tight Level 4 lockdown, effective immediately.
South Coast Track | July/August 2021
You never think that it’s going to be as terrible as it is, but I was reminded of the horror of some parts that can’t be circumvented. Still, you forget quickly as well. It wasn’t so bad.
I'm outta here
After two months of sorting out my life, and some procrastination, I eventually departed Nelson for a serious break down in the deep south of the country.
Heading south, finally
I’m planning on a 2½ months escape, and only returning when I fail to cast a shadow.
Website servers and ensuing coding headaches
But I’m a content creator, not a coder.
Wellington, ie, civilisation
Living in a relatively isolated town where everything becomes exceedingly familiar, well, breaking out every now and again becomes important to mental well-being.
5000+ upvotes? Really!
I’m not intending this blog as a standard humblebrag. It’s more as astonishment as what spread of thoughts is possible with this Internet thing.
Mid-winter beachside camping
Yeah, it all worked out. No need for perfection after all.
Writing progress
It’s slow work editing a paperback, thinking it’s my legacy for posterity, so the text needs to be as good as I can get it.
Yeah, Quora again
This site, bluelake, shouldn’t be allowed to languish.
Vale, Douglas
Back again: time to resurrect this blog
After a three-year hiatus, this blog is cranking up again.
More Quora.com—1000+ views x 53
Some of my recent answers on Quora.com have been getting views. What I consider a lot of views.
Leslie-Karamea Track radio interview
Here’s the thing: you can make all the excuses in the world, but when you are in the spotlight a true star performs.
Diverted off to Quora.com
I have stories, and decent images to illustrate. Might as well share my knowledge.
Filling in some blank space
My main thought has been: Is this the most that can be made from this story?
A path for 2018
There is something about Mid Goulter Hut that seems to unleash my creative juices, and helps find my inspiration.
My new ebook? Lots of research, not much writing.
Perhaps my new ebook could be a narrative about aging, or be dealing with making difficult decisions.
I have been writing. Just not here.
I discovered Quora.com.
Spare time? What I'm up to
I’m now in the process of converting my two other 100,000 word e-books to paperbacks.
Top writer 2018!!
I’m not surprised the answers have been appreciated. But I am surprised my answers have been seen.
I've gone viral!!
One of mine started strongly, and didn’t stop on its trajectory for a week.
Exercise in frustration—Summer 2017
My summer of 2017 was a number of lessons in frustration.
Quora.com is another question and answer site
The thing is no one will ever be persuaded to alter their opinion through argumentation. Might as well head to less controversial subjects.
100 Days | Walking Te Araroa paperback version arrives!!
Eight days after ordering some copies there was a courier turning up at the door with a box requiring a signature.
formatting the paperback edition
Formatting the text and illustrations neatly on a page? That’s another task.
New 100 days cover
There is little point in subtlety if you want sales. The image has to ring like a bell.
Converting an ebook into a paperback | 100 Days of Tramping
Converting an e-book into a self-published paperback version isn’t so difficult, after all, you already have the text sorted. Well, almost.
Gathering 500gb+ of photo images into one library!!
Merging and transferring the first two libraries has been easy enough, the issue is filling in some gaps.
My first 5 star review
If I summed up the message it’s probably this: words for thoughtful people about how I attempted to create a meaningful life.
My long bluelake blog hiatus ends
I’m now back settled once again so I’m hoping I’ll get back into the swing of more regular posts, perhaps catching up all a few gaps.
2 women on a parallel path
Two people entirely relaxed in their solitude, and each following a path that is somewhat parallel to my own.
1,250,000+ hits!!
Having been working in a serious way on this website stuff about six years, I thought I’d do a reconciliation of how effective it has been. After all, I’ve put a fair effort into documenting my Little Adventures.
What! Another revision
Still working on my new book 100 Days of Tramping.
There’s so much to write about. The passage of time, how you change, and don’t, over the course of adulthood. The discussion isn’t limited to tramping, it’s the possibilities about thinking about Life in general, decisions made, etc.
The Otira Pub | just another day on the Te Araroa Trail
An extract from the book I am currently working on called, err,
100 Days of Tramping Te Araroa
I recount my thoughts and experiences when I walked the South Island section of Te Araroa, from Bluff to Ships Cove in the Summer of 2015. Oh, and there were 16 days getting as far south as is sensible to walk in New Zealand, down on Stewart Island/Rakiura, as a pre-amble.
1200 hit day
My documentation of the Hanging Valley Shelter is the best in town and it has received a pummelling from Canada today. My hits have been usually around the 300 mark, dropping somewhat lower in mid week in the winter. Surprisingly consistent actually.
Today the website received the biggest number of hits for a single day, 1200.
nelsonbuildingreports.co.nz released to the wild
I’ve been somewhat quiet in the last six weeks, head down working on my latest website, the very static nelsonbuildingreports.co.nz.
It’s been designed to suit viewing on a phone primarily, although it looks OK on a desktop.
100 Days of Tramping +Te Araroa+
“Walking, ideally, is a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a chord. Walking allows us to be in our bodies and in the world without being made busy by them. It leaves us free to think without being wholly lost in our thoughts.”
Rebecca Solnit from Wanderlust: A History of Walking
North Island images | May 2015
It always seems easy to crack out photos in Wellington for some reason, Tauranga not so much.
paperconservation.co.nz arrives
Obviously there has been a major design shift needed with 50% of web page views now on them small screens — you don’t have much territory to play with.
So: simplify, and you can’t have major bandwidth requirements, ie, no big slow loading slideshows.
wayback nostalgia
I loved the use of substantial, dynamic imagery and the otherwise minimalist design with an expanse of whitespace, something that was rare at the time, kinda echoing my architectural design sense.
tramping.net.nz hits 616 pages!
With some simple search engine optimisation, ie, following Google’s guidelines, many search inquiries show tramping.net.nz on the first page, often just immediately under DOC’s listing.
Awesome! This page is mobile friendly
April 21 has been the day that Google started to penalise a website’s rankings if they didn’t get mobile friendly. If it doesn’t work well on a mobile phone, well, your ranking is going to be severely downgraded.
TA SI NOBO, Te Araroa South Island north bound
As it turned out TA SI was a fantastic experience, meeting around 120 of the approximate 300 people who had similarly occupied their time this way, getting to cross country I not experienced before, love that tussock. Overall it was more remorseless than I had anticipated, plenty of 500m climbs up to passes between the valleys, more than one 1700m climbing day and it turns out that 1400km is actually a long way.
Camping in the Tin Range, Stewart Island
If you are heading south to Invercargill with a tent it kinda makes sense to pop over to Stewart Island and make use of the tracks while the days are long.
Mt Richmond excursion
Mt Richmond isn’t apparent from Nelson, you need some distance, like over near Abel Tasman, to see the distinctive, if not memorable, shape. After more than half a lifetime it’s now proved time to climb the peak.
Why Richard Flanagan is donating his $40,000 prize to an Indigenous literacy charity
The lesson that my father took from the prisoner of war camps and imparted to me was that the measure of any civilised society was its willingness to look after its weakest.
Money is like shit, my father used to say. Pile it up and it stinks. Spread it around and you can grow things.
Roger's birthday celebrations at Totaranui
Instead there was the full realisation that this moment, in this place, was what was important. This is where people wanted to be, nothing else was more important in their lives in this instance. What’s right in front of my face, personal communication between a group of people who don’t know everybody in attendance, just an agglomeration of the closest friends of the birthday boy, Roger.
Brainpickings picks at Leonardo's Brain
One of my favourite websites to scan on a daily basis is this long running curation of book reviews: brainpickings.org. It’s all about interestingness.
45 nights in DOC huts, maybe just a few too many in one go
I’m back in Nelson after my two month squelch around Fiordland, all part of filling in gaps for my tramping.net.nz website.
I call it primary research.
15 days walking in Arthurs Pass National Park
Better not forget about my 15 days in Arthurs Pass National Park prior to the major Fiordland expedition.
Christchurch. Whose city is this now?
There’s such a vacancy, a vacuum to the centre, so much lost by the earthquakes, so few people, such an expanse of gone-ness.
Phew ... the first eight ebooks finally cranked out
So eight e-books more or less down, another two stories ready to go.
But rather than crack those out I’m itching to get out there, despite the supposedly wintery nature down at 41ºS currently. I kinda need some additional “research” for tramping.co.nz, fill in some gaps in the coverage, ready for the summer season which is not so far away.
E-books | All you really need to know about formatting for the Amazon Book Store
I’ve finally sorted this e-book formatting for once and all, as they say. And my problem with ebook formatting turned out to be not anything much to do with my allegations of font stripping.
How?
I did nothing.
Kindle Digital Publishing and custom font embedding
I’ve spent an inordinate effort in attempting embedment of custom fonts in various e-books at KDP in recent weeks.
It’s not exactly a simple process but once you understand the principles it’s kind of 1-2-3.
a brief extract from zzOz
Day 159 | Midway through my time in Alice
A flurry of love interest here, beyond my tendency to be an outrageous flirt, I emerged from under a rock, but the female of the species can be fickle, everything was perfect so there must be a problem. For a while I wasn’t sure if we were paused at a semi-colon, with a long list of fun about to blossom, a colon, slight pause followed by more, only slightly different, or the complete full stop.
zzOz is up, I'm an author
Yup, zzOz is up, I’m an author, even if no one has actually paid for my work yet.
Nothing like publishing two, yes, exactly two, full length books on the same day.
INFJ, hunh?
100 years ago, my partner of the time, who couldn’t make sense of me, decided a Myers Briggs Personality Type Test was essential, as in, right this minute. On a website with a comprehensive test, like, 16 Personalities, you answer 60 questions and you get categorised in the continuum between a few opposing poles.
Constructing an ebook, or two | Heading West
When I arrived in Perth, after 464 days out on the road, I had decided to construct my own Textpattern website and the task of copying the text and uploading the photos from CG was undertaken. (Txp is a lightweight but entirely powerful interface that allows direct fiddling with the basic HTML. Once you come to grips with HTML and CSS there’s not much you can’t do, although it still hasn’t resolved how to cope with image sizing, then again the whole internet hasn’t got that sorted yet.)
the cruise to Rabbit Island
The 15 image slideshow gives an indication why Nelson ain’t such a bad place to live, even nearing the shortest day.
Cycling through crocland in 1914
Hummingbird, Google's new indexing system
Reid Cycles blog
cranking up a 99 image popup slide show
oozled | curated creative design and development resources
five principles: a guide to Joshua Porter's UX design philosophy
tweeking that jquery slideshow
Coding your website design can be a complex operation to nut out. Translating your concept into screen simplicity.
four Design Principles, plus another one for free
With my first hack at a website back in January 2009, a blog made with iWeb that eventually evolved into my cycletrailsaustralia.com site, I had four Design Principles that were at variance with what was then current practice.
Nelson to, umm, the Lewis Pass, or, 20 days of sunshine, (2 days of rain)
the Nelson Trolley Derby 2014
Cyclone Lusi remnant, Nelson takes a battering
Abel Tasman Inland Track | short and sweet
I finally loaded up the latest, and shortest, track route information page on the tramping.net.nz site, the Abel Tasman Inland Track.
Abel Tasman Inland Track blog
I’ve just added some notes on my latest sojourn in the hills last weekend, over to the close by Abel Tasman National Park to walk the little traversed Inland Track . . .
Sunrise 4 March 2014
<title> If she doesn't look like that, she soon will . . . </title>
the sad case of Andy Wyatt
a new ritual | the Nelson Saturday market
99u.com | insights on productivity, organization, and leadership to help creatives people push ideas forward
tramping.net.nz takes shape, but plenty to go
Been busy working on tramping.net.nz in the last month and have added another 99 pages, it’s now up to 256.
The Great Discontent | Alistair Humpheys
Early Summer Southern Tour | heading south once again
It’s the start of my, umm, Early Summer Southern Tour, gathering additional raw material for my tramping.net.nz website.
tramping.net.nz is starting to acquire pages
Christchurch revisited
how Google works
