Comet McNaught or not

Ironically after all the drama with the car over the weekend, I had it booked in for a service and warrant of fitness check yesterday. Apart from the horn not working, which I knew about, everything else was fine and the car is back in my possession, freshly serviced and warranted.

As it was not too hot when I got home form work I decided to get out for my scheduled 8km run. I drove up to Titirangi and ran up past Mt Atkinson and then along Exhibition drive and back the normal way to Titirangi. The run is probably closer to 9km than 8, but it didn’t have as much hill as I guess it should have, but I was still feeling the effects of the Waharau ride a bit. The sun came back out half way along and it did get quite warm, mixed with the humidity it was a sweaty run. I kept to a slow pace to start and sped up for the return so my return time was again faster than the first leg. This is something I am going to be focusing on as well as keeping to a slow, low HR run, though again I did push it a bit on the way back to the car. I am going to really have to try and keep to low HR runs as I am feeling quite worn out again this morning and I have only barely started on building the training miles. I was considering a ride tonight but I think I will rest up instead.

After the run and a dinner of reheated leftovers from Sunday night (tonight I have reheated leftovers from Monday night) I decided to go out to Piha to try and get a photo of Comet McNaught which has been seen in the skies about 9.00 – 9.30 PM. There have been a few photos in the newspaper so I thought I would have a go and Piha was a recommended spot. I got about half way there, as far as the Anawhata Rd when I could see that there was heavy low cloud hanging over the edges of the ranges. At that point I decided to turn back and try the lookout at Arataki. I stopped and took a few photos of a tree in the fog, I have bracketed a range of speeds to see what works best. Here is the shot I like best.

I got to Arataki about 8.45 and there were half a dozen people there. I set up the camera and tripod in a likely spot and snapped a few sun set shots while I waited. Again I snapped a hole load with different manual settings to see what came out best, though I haven’t had a good chance to review in detail yet. Here is the best of those shots.


By 9.30 there would have been 100 people on the lookout and sadly I was in the wrong spot to see the comet. I moved down towards the car park where it could be seen, but there was too much wind and too many cars to be able to take a long photo. I did get to see the comet and it was all very unexciting. I went home.

There are some shots of the comet here

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=000568BF-464C-15B3-81A783027AF1010F

I had an email from my wife, youngest is coming home on the 4th of Feb, though it sounds like her father might not make it that far so I could be over sooner rather than later.