January 5, 2016 … watching the traffic go by

Hello and welcome to the first of my revised efforts for 2016. Many thanks to so many of you who sent messages of thanks and encouragement at the conclusion of the blog in its earlier daily form. Your kindness was much appreciated.

It will take me a while to find my feet and to live up to my own hopes and expectations, so I hope you will bear with me, and at the same time be kind enough to offer any constructive criticism that may occur to you.

Mt Victoria Tunnel looking towards the Basin Reserve

Today I concentrated on one topic at four different locations in Wellington City. There is still a degree of “happenstance” in today’s edition. All I knew when I left home was the approximate location where I intended to start, and that took me through the Mt Victoria Tunnel. There can be few people who grew up in Wellington who don’t remember the habit of tooting in the tunnel. There are the odd curmudgeons who write disapproving  or enraged letters to the editor about this eccentricity, and I am sure the people plodding along the pedestrian walkway hate it. Anyway, the tunnel itself sparked an idea for me.  A day on “traffic”. After parking in Hataitai, I walked back to the tunnel and about thirty metres inside to see what might be done.

The traffic through the tunnel pulses, sometimes the lanes are empty, sometimes busy in both directions. It would be a rare transit though the tunnel that you didn’t hear at least one other car blow its horn, and hardly ever for legitimate reasons. It’s just a local custom that is not applied to the other tunnels

Various shutter speeds assisted by the ND400 Neutral Density filter gave differing results.  There were several more in similar vein, but by now I had decided my theme for this blog would be traffic.

Busy Adelaide Rd in Newtown

Adelaide Rd in Newtown is always busy by Wellington standards, and the busy-ness is compounded by the heavy presence of the Wellington Hospital at the North, and the Newtown shops in the South. I began at the intersection of Adelaide and Rintoul St. Again using slow exposure on this glorious day, I tried to give a sense of Newtown’s main street.

There is always something moving in Newtown. This view is at the Constable S intersection, looking North towards the hospital.

Undoubtedly the most cosmopolitan centre in the region, Newtown has a lot of quirky shops including Bookhaven, Don Hollander’s very fine second-hand bookshop. The number of serious bookshops dwindles each year, so I hope this one continues the battle. My next standpoint was on the corner of Constable street, looking back to the North.

Molly Malone’s stands empty. I hope someone revives it. Meanwhile the traffic races up and down Taranaki St.

My last choice for the day was on the intersection of Taranaki St and Courtenay Place in the central city.  Most Western cities, including Wellington, seem to have an Irish pub called Molly Malone’s. Sadly, the one across the road went broke and has been closed since early last year.

Anyway, I have left you with five images that give you a sample of traffic in Southern and central Wellington today. I am not sure if this will be how the blog evolves, but would welcome any and all feed back.

regards
Brian