Finally…..some competition

Recognised as one of Australasia's busiest fishing ports, it would seem…..that the only thing getting in the way, of making it a bigger Port, is, well………The Cut.

Great intentions were there when it was blasted into that dastardly Boulder Bank to allow larger ships a safe passage many many decades ago.

Click on this (& courtesy of Wikipedia and a great shot from a local Photag over at Wikipedia) above you’ll get the surprise of your life….…its one of the best photos of the Boulder Bank, with Nelson to the centre left, that you’ll see……..but believe me……… it may take some time to load! (the original Wikipedia author was identified by Wikipedia as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Stug.stug, and I certainly have no probs with giving him/her credit for the shot….cause it definitely takes a bit of an effort to get that elevation, and that perspective)

And by safe passage I mean exactly that – many ships were lost trying to visit Nelson prior to the dynamite. Check out The Prow to see what I mean.

Which brings me to today. What’s this???

And my effort in the rain……..hmmm?

Looks like I’ve got some local competition. Great News for the viewer/browser because it means better choice of shots. And this person looks to be in the right spot? At about 1mb resolution….I’d love to know if it was a camera or an image taken with a mobile phone.

It would seem that someone else with a Nelsonians Eye, and sharing a similar nautical fascination, under the name of “One Eyed Kiwi” is this person……….from today also providing visual documentation of ships going and fro-ing from Port Nelson.

Ships, like planes, have always been a fascination of mine. In fact as a youngster it got me into a lot of trouble.

Travelling from Tauranga in 1972, obviously the jet trip (Air NZ DC8) itself was one of my first quite vivid travel memories, to Sydney as part of a Bay of Plentys Soccer Rep Team…..the coach commented to my parents…(I was a forward) that…he’s fantastic – does his job admirably………but only so long as no jet planes are flying overhead.

Big problem at St George Club in Sydney then ………….because the airport was only a couple kms from the playing ground….(from memory it seemed even shorter) but I would loose myself and look skyward….thank goodness my concentration has improved considerably since then. (in case you are wondering, yes those jets were TAA 727’s)

From memory, we won the 1st game, but that was the only one…….so we lost the series. Still it was an incredible experience for a 12 year old from rural NZ.

I suspect we are one of the few places in the world to have a ship in a real unusual place too.