Stephen Blyth's Blog

There were some damn good films at The New Zealand Film Festival last month. Here’s a few of my favourites. Well, actually, a write-up a couple of the ‘promotional’ websites. First up, a word about the offical Film Festival website itself. It’s hard to avoid Telecom’s brazen sponsorship: an overdose of branding with slick functionality. [...]

When we were doing some planning for Heartbeat last month one of the five key areas we decided to focus on was FUN. Organising fun events, that is.It all started with a list of alternatives to the proposed v8 motor-race. The list was faxed by Diana’s daughter from London. Amidst the suggestions were pram racing, [...]

With the end of daylight savings I’ve finally come in from the wilderness where I’ve spent most of the summer. It’s not that I haven’t had lots of ideas to share, but staring at this screen has been surplanted by walks, swimming, socialising, tramping, etc. In February I started in a new position with Family [...]

I’ve been trying to work out what made the second World of Music and Dance (Womad) held in New Plymouth so special. The sun shone continously, healthy food and Montieths were served up and the big crowd was appreciative. I got to hang-out with many of my friends, and there were chance meetings with half [...]

When I looked up from taking the photo of Mt Taranaki on the left, I saw that the rest of the tramping party had moved on. I stuffed my camera in its case, threw on my pack and raced to catch-up. It was the first morning of a three day walk around the base of [...]

Now that the mild weather has returned it’s time to enjoy the great New Zeeeaaland outdoors. I went tramping over Labour weekend with the Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club. Our trip was due to take us from the Holdsworth roadend to Otaki Forks with lots of open tops travel. The weather disrupted our plans: fearing [...]

On 26th July I begin an online course offered through the Christchurch Polytechnic. Because the course is delivered entirely over the Internet I need to have a reliable and easy connection. One that doesn’t hog the phone line. So I’ve decided to get a broadband internet connection. Ouch!!! It’s a sellers market. Here’s what my [...]

Greeting me on my return to Wellington are some seriously strong winds. News reports of roofing iron torn off, garage doors pummeled and elderly folk lifted Mary Poppins like into the sky. It’s an elemental sort of place. Gales, downpours, crashing surf, rocky sea shore…. the people stoic, braving what may come. I must try [...]

You probably can’t tell but my computer is shaking as I write this. Not violently, but dully shuddering. I’m on the Ghan, a quarter of the way from Alice Springs to Adelaide. It’s not exactly smooth nor quiet. There’s plenty of space in the Red Kangeroo carriages. We’re the folk sleeping in our seats on [...]

It’s unseasonably wet in the Centre at the moment. The Todd River in Alice Springs is usually a sandy ditch, but at the moment water is actually flowing through the river bed. Temperatures are below average too. A maximum of 14 degrees is expected, ten degrees lower than the May average. It would be churlish [...]