www.nickhodge.com

Hav­ing vis­ited Christ­ch­urch, South Island New Zea­l­and many times; and Japan at least 4 times — I can clearly state they are some of the greatest places in the world to visit. The people are friendly; the sights and exper­i­ences are extraordin­ary. The places are rel­at­ively safe.

One would think.

In both instances, they live on the edge of the “Pacific Rim of Fire”, the edge of the Pacific tec­tonic plate that rings West­ern Amer­ica around to New Zea­l­and: the ‘shaky isles’

It is with much inner tur­moil and sad­ness to see both places crumble and sucumb to devestation.

This only makes me want to revisit when the time is right, to show sup­port. That their choice to live in a shaky place is not a ghetto nor a place to be shunned.

Uncle Mike talked about this last week: why you tag your pho­tos (cc) and geotag your photos.

Unlike other large cor­por­a­tions who have mis-used (cc) licensed pho­tos, Schmap cor­rectly asked and obtained per­mis­sion to use one of my pho­tos on their site:

Schmap Christ­ch­urch Third Edi­tion: Photo Inclusion

Hi Nick,
I am delighted to let you know that your two sub­mit­ted pho­tos have been selec­ted for inclu­sion in the newly released third edi­tion of our Schmap Christ­ch­urch Guide:
God­ley Head
www.schmap.com/christchurch/sights_attractions/p=174111/i=174111_2.jpg
God­ley Head
www.schmap.com/christchurch/sights_attractions/p=174111/i=174111_3.jpg
If you like the guide and have a web­site, blog or per­sonal page, then please also check out our schmap­plets — cus­tom­iz­able wid­get­ized ver­sions of our Schmap Christ­ch­urch Guide, com­plete with your pub­lished pho­tos:
www.schmap.com/schmapplets/p=37473564N00/c=SE51033694
Thanks so much for let­ting us include your pho­tos — please enjoy the guide!

Like all pic­tures, there is a back story, too.

Note: 11^th September

(cc) Cre­at­ive Com­mons Aus­tralia has fur­ther discussion

Paul Brick­hill, ori­ginal Aus­tralian author of The Dam Busters may be turn­ing in his grave. The mas­ter of fakery is now in charge of re-kindling the memor­ies of the bravest men who never had the chance to pass on their bravery to younger generations.

The dir­ector of the longest movies I am thank­ful I’ve never seen: Lord of the Rings; Peter Jack­son, is now remak­ing the clas­sic 1950s Brit­ish movie of the book of the fam­ous raid on the dams of the Ruhr val­ley in 1943.

If he des­troys this like he has decim­ated the love of his child­hood, King Kong (1933) , almost as much as the 1976 ver­sion: I am going to be livid. This movie is not about ILM/Weta tech­nical gee-whizzery. It is about the men who flew in World War II, and those who lost their lives on both sides for reas­ons the cur­rent young un’s have forgotten.

The Dam Busters movie/book is a salute to quirky Eng­lish sci­ent­ist (Barnes Wal­lis) and to the bravery of air­men of the Empire; in a time that the cur­rent gen­er­a­tion has quickly for­got­ten. Richard Todd, him­self a vet­eran, played Wing Com­mander Guy Gib­son (Vic­toria Cross), who died in a de Havil­land Mos­quito in Hol­land, Septem­ber 1944.

Dur­ing the Dam Busters raid in May of 1943 Guy was in com­mand, and merely 25 years old. I trust that an appro­pri­ate age (that is, young) actor is chosen to provide real­ism to what oth­er­wise could go the way of King Kong.

We need to remem­ber; and I hope the movie does for the air­men of the Empire what Sav­ing Private Ryan has done for the vet­er­ans of D-Day. To remem­ber, not be entertained.

Nick meets snow Christ­ch­urch II (5^th June to 8^th June).

12,000kms of travel in the last three weeks. Stuffed. Inter­est­ing last two days: Wel­ling­ton and Christ­ch­urch (21^st April and 22nd April)

Tak­ing more Adobe people on a pil­grim­age to the west-coast shores out­side of Auck­land: Mark Szulc, Paul Steph­ens and Nick Hodge in New Zea­l­and. Pre­vi­ous trav­el­lers: Rus­sell Brown and Nick Hodge in New Zea­l­and and Tim Cole, Jane Brady and Nick Hodge in New Zealand

Arrived in the US. Again. Man­aged to take a side trip on the way to Auck­land air­port to the pret­ti­est place in the world: Piha, June 2003. This scenery is less than 1 hour away from Auck­land Inter­na­tional Airport.

I am in NZ, and have stocked up on Pas­call Jet Planes. Hmmm.

Moby likes Piha and Karekare, too. Check out his journal, in the first of the NZ entries.

Just ran out of Pas­call Jet Planes. Last trip to New Zea­l­and I pur­chased 7 packs. Time to go the expat-order route