Tuesday, February 26: Still a bit cold but almost sunshine pure today
Dave’s/Brennagh’s
Had to bite the bullet today and soon after breakfast I went around to the hunting place, but their two civilian backpacks were rather heavy even empty and the camo ones didn’t really come into question. Then it was off to Rel Computer Solutions (144A Victoria Ave) where the guy gave me the advice of resetting the laptop to a restore point by holding down the shift key during start up (didn’t work), and then to Kathmandu who had a 40 L, reasonably light (1.9 kg) pack, one compartment only, for $300, with the possibility of getting 40% off if I complained too much. Then I paid a seamstress (Sue’s) a visit and she assured me that if she could get the seam under her machine she would repair the current pack. With that sorted it was time to return & collect the gear to see what could be done.
First stop was Sue’s. I had removed the frame and it appeared that the sites to be sown were accessible so I left the pack with her and agreed to come back tomorrow afternoon.
At Rel the gent installed the Datalog files on his W7 computer, then plugged the logger in with my USB cable, which didn’t produce the “connect” sound. He then tried another cable, which did produce the necessary sound, which also brought up a message saying that a com port had been installed and from there the data was downloaded to my external drive, the configuration was checked and everything found to be OK. He only wanted $15 for his time and the new USB cable, but I left $20 with him. Seems that the cable I had did not have a data wire (it came with the compass to charge it) – why anyone would want to produce such bespoke minimised cables I have no idea.
Slide Show
Click on the image to stop/start the animation
Solutions having been undertaken I looked at two bakeries for lunch of sausage rolls and chose the one @ 141 Victoria Ave, then I took off to the shopping center to have a look at clothing at the Warehouse and then to buy a couple of things @ countdown.
Now that the GPS files were accessible it was time to start organising them. A couple of initial points needed to be deleted, and the first day of the Round the Mountain Track has a premature end, but apart from that things seem to be OK. Tried downloading and deleting all the files from the device and that seemed to work as well. A bit of a relief that things are now shaping up a bit better.
Whanganui River Adventures will pick me up from the end of the Matemateaonga in the afternoon, give me a cabin bunk at their campground in Pipiriki to sleep in, and then the mail run will pick me up the next day and bring me back to Whanganui. Then it was time to rebook Crystal’s room for the return, buy a bus ticket ticket to New Plymouth for the very end of the stay here, and book a room there as well.
I had asked the girls (Crystal herself had made an appearance or two during the day) about pizza places, but they only came up with Dominos, Pizza Hut and Hell, which all seem to be around the corner. Had a look @ Hell but couldn’t decide between the 7½” and 12″ pizzas, so took the Chinese takeaway next door instead (City Fast Food, 221 Victoria Ave) for pork fried rice for $13. I could feel the weight as I took the parcel and there was no way this could be eaten in a single sitting. Ate today’s half seated on the deck.
Digitally stabilised fifteen minutes of the Whanganui River Journey kayaking (final section) and produced it. There is still side-to-side motion, but the effect is rather good.
Now to organise the stuff for the next tramp (Trains/Matemateaonga, semi-satellite), see if I can take enough cash with me this time around.
