During the past week or so I've been trying to reintroduce some moderate exercise into my daily routine as a means to calm down my unruly alien in my chest. Having to live with this alien (aka Premature Ventricular Contractions or PVCs) has certainly changed the way I walk. I used to charge up the hill via the steepest but quickest course and stopped only when I got there to take in views. Now my preference is less steep, undulating uphill so that I can build up a steady pace, which my alien seems to like. Because I'm slower, I can catch a sight of interesting, pretty or unusual things more often than before, and, more shutter chances for my new camera. …

On the 12th, I walked down to my home patch Otari Native Plant Garden and, from the picnic ground on the valley, took the right hand way to follow the Yellow trail up. My initial intention was to go to the Flax Clearing and go home, to have just an easy walk after the episodes of persistent PVCs the day before. But the steady uphill calmed down the alien. When greeted by the warm sun at the Flax Clearing, I decided to go further and revisit the new track I discovered in July.

I carried on and soon arrived the access road. I was greeted by Yet Another Good Harbour View (YAGHV), but when I turned left to follow the metal road, I saw thick white clouds over the hills behind and felt cool moisture in the air. I carried on maintaining the steady pace and soon arrived at the now established new track. Unlike before, I stopped several times and took photographs. I also checked out some obscure side track that lead to one of the bait station for possum eradication.

At the crossing of the new track and the route up from top of the Blue trail, I noticed the old colourful sign post with attitude was now replaced by a new, sleek but less informative B/W sign, presumably still written by the same hand.

A little disappointed, I carried on and followed the top Blue Trail back to the picnic ground. There, just past the 800 years old Rimu tree, I came across a pretty sight of flowering native irises and took some pictures. When I got home and checked the pictures, I was disappointed to find the iris flowers were not as sharp as I'd hoped. I had to go back there again!

And so I did. A week later on the 19th. I again went down to the picnic ground and took this time the Blue Trail turning up left. The iris flowers were still there. I spent quite some time experimenting with different camera settings and finally took one (!) clear sharp picture of iris flowers.

Then, 50m down the track, I walked passed the giant Rimu and got stopped by the Rimu, my camera or both. I spent some more time there trying to capture its massive and, at the same time, slender figure. This meant I had to stop at the Kahikatea further up the track. Then there were the red toadstool and other things I had to stop and try other camera settings. I even narrowly avoided a welcome back shower from sprinkler just before the exit! In the end, the walk that would previously take about 1.5 hours took me over 2.5 hours!

I'm not sure how much exercise I really got. But my camera surely did get a good work out.