Paramount Chief Te Peeti Te Awe Awe of Rangitaane Iwi.

Palmy is littered with talismans in the Square.  Most are artistic, many are a sign of the times.  The one I want to highlight is Chief Te Peeti Te Awe Awe statue.  Forget the Pakeha Iwi that came later, we have a city father that is largely unheralded (We never had his  deeds in history at high school)

He lived in the Manawatu area with his hapu/whanau/moko.  He somehow saw the coming of Pakeha as a blessing and he gifted land now called Te Papaioea for the purposes of a city.  I'd really like to find out why Palmy grew so quickly along with Hamilton two landlocked cities??

Anyway back to our paramount chieftain - he was very wise as he specified that a central area (now called the Square) be gifted for the recreational use of the cities citizens.  I believe the Deed Of Gift precluded commercial use of the parkland.  Herein lies the troubles Palmy is suffering.  Thankfully his statue faces east so he doesn't have to look over his gifted land with a God Awful council Administration Building -  which juts out into the Deeded land, not to mention this other bane, a concrete car park.

Ok off my Barrow!!  I was happened to walk in the Square today and stopped by Chiefy to read his statue and hello!!  There is something not quite right - have blown up the inscription for you to see.

Here is the tale of the tape (Click Here)

The anomaly if you can't see it is this. The New Zealand flag had been in for 4 years, replacing the Union Jack  Does anyone know why the "NZ Standard" to right has that configuration??

All I can say to his hapu, we have his back.

666 The Number of the Beastie

By Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch standards Palmy North has very short streets.  BUT!!  We do have several longish streets that transit east/west and north/south.  And the ones listed below are no exception.

With that in mind I did a Google Maps search for all of them with The Number of the Beast as anchor!!

666 Tremaine Avenue  - Petrol station.
666 Featherston Street - Last House to east.
666 Main Street - 1930's Bungalow
666 Church Street  - 3rd to Last house to east.
666  Ferguson Street - Last House to east.
666 College Street -  Last House to east
666 Ruahine Street - 2nd Last House to south.

The Town Planners pretty much got it right.

Giving the Manawatu Region a Leg Up (Satire)

Apparently there is a buzz going around in the Nation's Capitol that an investigation is underway to look at relocating the Capitol to a region that hasn't had catastrophic earthquake damage and likely not to  suffer any in the future.  There are three areas being looked at:

Palmerston North

Palmerston North

And

Palmerston North

So what about reality??  Wellington is prone to catastrophic earth movement and eventually even a quake centred elsewhere is dodgy, so not good.  Palmerston North gets other peoples quakes and in history those quakes have been few and far between, There is plenty of real estate to purchase and the infrastructure is well in place to handle the increase in populations and real estate at hand.  Editted to add - Manawatu is away from Tsunami issues.

It also means Members of Parliament and Civil servants have a 20 minute ride to Ohakea for ministerial duties on RNZAF aircraft.  It would also mean Palmy "International" Airport can be lengthened to cope with larger aircraft, and overseas travelers on  diplomatic service.  The bonus for  a dedicated airport is no bad weather in the Manawatu unlike Wellington's dodgy one.

Burning issues in the Manawatu (click here SH3 tunnel and Linton Bridge ) plus the capability to cater for larger populations need addressing but not as bad as Wellington's real estate worries and commutes.  Palmy is 10 minutes from one end to the other.

A bit of fun - what to build and call it??

Possibly:-

Rōpū whakahaere (Management and governance)

A suggestive pic:-

featuring:-

Ok ok reality says bullshit but there will be one day when thinking ahead is beneficially prudent.

My Karaoke Repetoire

Artist	Song Title	Rating
Bob Dylan	Forever Young	10
George Thorogood	Bad to the Bone	10
Metallica	Turn the Page	10
AC/DC	Long Way To Top If You Want To Rock And Roll	10
Alice Cooper	Schools Out	10
Animals	House of the Rising Sun	10
Bachman Turner Overdrive	You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet	10
Ben E King	Stand by Me	10
Bloodhound Gang	Fire, Water, Burn	10
Pink Floyd	Mother	10
Pink Floyd	Comfortably Numb	10
Tina Turner	River Deep Mountain High	10
The Doors	Roadhouse Blues	10
Jim Croche	Spiders and Snakes	10
Pink Floyd	Nobody Home	10
The Who	Behind Blue Eyes
The Rolling Stones	Beast of Burden.
Black Sabbath	War Pigs	10
Bob Dylan	Blowin' in the Wind	10
Bob Marley	No Woman No Cry	10
Buffalo Springfield	For What It's Worth (What's that Sound)	10
Creed	My Sacrifice	10
Creedence Clearwater Revival	Proud Mary	10
Deep Purple	Hush	10
Dire Straits	Sultans of Swing	10
Dire Straits	Walk of Life	10
Elton John	Candle In the Wind	10
Eric Clapton	Tears in Heaven	10
Green Day	American Idiot	10
Green Day	Time of your Life	10
J. Geils Band	Centrefold	10
Jeff Healy	While My Guitar Gently Weeps	10
Jethro Tull	Aqualung	10
Jethro Tull	Locomotive Breath	10
Led Zeppelin	Rock and Roll	10
Lou Reed	Take a Walk on the Wild Side	10
Neil Young	Heart of Gold	10
Ozzy Osbourne	No More Tears	10
Psychedelic Furs	Pretty In Pink	10
Rammstein	Du Hast	10
Rolling Stones	Wild Horses	10
Steve Earl	Copperhead Road	10
Stevie Ray Vaughan	The Sky Is Crying	10
Temptations	Papa was a Rolling Stone	10
The Commitments	Dark End of the Street	10
The Doors	Roadhouse Blues	10
The Eagles	Desperado	10
The Pogues	Dirty Old Town	10
The Who	Pinball Wizard	10
Toots and the Maytalls	Beautiful Woman	10
Van Halen	You Really Got Me	10
Velvet Revolver	Fall to Pieces	10
ZZ Top	Sharp Dressed Man	10
Alice Cooper	No More Mr Nice Guy	9
Audioslave	I Am a Highway	9
Audioslave	Like a Stone	9
Bachman Turner Overdrive	Takin' Care of Business	9
Black Sabbath	Paranoid	9
Bob Marley	Buffalo Soldier	9
Bob Marley	Redemption Song	9
Creedence Clearwater Revival	Have You Ever Seen The Rain	9
Elvis Presley	In The Ghetto	9
Elvis Presley	Suspicious Minds	9
Metallica	Enter Sandman	9
Ozzy Osbourne	Mama I'm Coming Home	9
Radiohead	Creep	9
Red Hot Chilli Peppers	Californication	9
Rolling Stones	Beast of Burden	9
Roy Orbison	You Got It	9
The Clash	I Fought the Law	9
The Doors	Riders on the Storm	9
Van Morrison	Gloria	9
Whitesnake	Here I go Again	9
Animals	Bring it on Home	8
Black Sabbath	War Pigs	8
Bob Seger	Turn the Page	8
Creed	With Arms Wide Open	8
David Bowie	Space Oddity	8
George Thorogood	I Drink Alone	8
Metallica	The Unforgiven	8
Neil Young	After the Goldrush	8
The Eagles	Tequila Sunrise	8
The Proclaimers	500 Miles	8
ZZ Top	La Grange	8
Cream	White Room	7
Deep Purple	Black Night	7
Devo	Whip It	7
Franz Ferdinand	Take Me Out	7
George Thorogood	One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer	7
Guess Who	American Woman	7
Led Zeppelin	Stairway to Heaven	7
Pearl Jam	Black	7
Tears For Fears	Shout	7
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers	Don't come around here no more	7
Steppanwolf	Born to Be Wild	6
Deep Purple	Smoke on the Water	5
Metallica	Master of the Puppets	5
Eminem	Eight Mile	5

Fitzherbert Park, why it has no First Class games and should!

Deep on the southeastern side of Palmerston North City (Pop 86,000) lies the historic Fitzherbert Park.  For many long years this park was solely a cricket (summer) and football(winter) ground, but more recently the winter code has been rugby league.  Much like other parks in New Zealand it is a dual purpose ground.  A few years ago this park lost it's NZ Cricket status as a first class ground (Reasons outlined here)  As can be seen, the work required has been completed and it's fair to ponder why the park has missed out on a first class Plunkett Shield match in the coming 14/15 season.

Especially when you line up the competition.  Napier/Hastings (Combined Pop 131,000) have at their disposal McLean Park and Nelson Park.  New Plymouth (pop 53,000) has Pukekura Park and Nelson (pop 46,000) has the new international stadium Saxton Oval.  So given the population base one would think Palmy has rights to more first class cricket right?

Well the pluses and minuses to other venues in the Central Districts region when comparing Palmy's status.

Napier.  Two grounds both with superior player facilities and a greater population base.
New Plymouth.  Smaller ground but a boutique park setting the players and crowd love.  Not sure on player facilities but bound to be better than Palmy. Smaller population.
Nelson.  Newish ground with better player facilities. Smaller population.
Palmerston North.  A great ground but very substandard facilities.

So it is clear Palmy is second only to Napier/Hastings as a metropolitan area and possible viewing numbers but lacks the facilities the players and the crowd desire.  Surely then if we want to have top class cricket in the cricket mad city then the council, Manawatu Cricket, CD Cricket and the national body would all join forces to erect a structure that will be a permanent feature and guarantee future fixtures on the first class calendar and possibly the odd international ODI/T20.  We deserve as much.  The old grandstand would probably, in today's environment, be assessed as an earthquake risk and due demolition giving cause to the calls for a better stand, player facilities, a HQ for Manawatu Cricket, and capable of supplying OB Units for top televised games.

So Palmy, what say you?  Do you want to use your voice and support this claim for better representation of our summer game?  I for one want to see games played here of the highest calibre possible and I'm sure you do too,  Why do we continue to let smaller cities steal a march on our right (population based) to host top cricket.  We have the ground, let's build a venue. (and a part of the revamp is an Electronic Scoreoard.)

The months have flown by

Been a while since I blogged, but to be honest have been really busy with Rugby World Cup and everything that brings with it.  But now the euphoria is dying away from that great final.  So to whet my apetite, and in answer to a friends comments on Facebook, I will place ehre some more photos from the Camera I call SPUtZnik (an Olympus SP570UZ - 4 years old and 10mp, but does me good)

On the 15th of August, 2011 and for the first time in living memory, it snowed heavily in Palmerston North.  I knew it was going to be cold days before, and sort of didn't believe what the weather forecasters were saying, snow to 400 metres in the ranges of the Manawatu.  I sort of sensed it would be lower just by the nature of the front as it moved up the South Island.

This building is the original Power Station for the then small city of Palmerston North.  I love the details I got with this, including the blue of the Falcon parked in the foreground.

Sometimes, just sometimes, photography is enhanced with software.  This shot urgently got me thinking this could be better served played with.  The photo placed 2nd in an online photography competition.

We don't see much snow this far down on the Ruahines.  Been a good winter for us that love cold weather.

The new playground wear is tough and colourful.  This boy was having a great time though when the shutter went click he had a miserable look.

These "novel" slides were made from stainless steel and chromed for long lasting use.  They also made a great Black and White and I got great reviews from my photography website for the composition and the black and white conversion.  This was taken at the same place as the kid previous photo (Memorial Park, Palmerston North)

A friend of my sister's place in the city.  Old 1942 Art Deco place with all original fittings, including the full sized billiard table.  This shot was interesting especially with the odd shaped tree and the art deco of the building.

I don't often do portraiture or people photos as I feel I am intruding on others lives, but my friend Sam wanted her photo taken so I set up a backdrop and a time and she turned up ready to be immortalised.

Another black and white that was widely acclaimed.  This taken on dusk in The Square in Palmerston North.  The title was Where Have The Old Folks Gone.

Out with the Old, in with the New.  What's a photographic Blog without a flower or two..........

............. and a Dandelion - welcome Spring.

 2nd Place in a Reflections Photography Contest recently

and this baby Won!!!

Thank you for reading.  Remember, comments welcomed :)

GunnerThane