HMNZS Aotearoa

 Our new ship is now in its home of Port Taranaki - The HMNZS Aotearoa

Unloading a Windfarm Part 2

 

Unloading a Windfarm

A ship in Port Taranaki, New Zealand, unloads parts for a windfarm. I think that the parts were made in Italy but I'm not sure.

Port Taranaki Boat Ramp

I had a sheltered spot out of the winter breeze at Port Taranaki. Exposed people were still launching boats and walking to the end of the breakwater.

Colourize Project: Tugboat

Colorized version from two years ago of a tugboat between the two breakwaters heading out from Port Taranaki.

Roulette 63824

Here's a set of three sketches of a fishing boat out of water getting some kind of work done on it. (In the August sketch, it's not the boat in front on the left.) I've done one per month so it's been there for a while now.

15th July 2017 The First fine Day for Ages!

Yesterday was the first fine Saturday for ages! Three weeks to be exact since we went to Churchill Heights. We went to the breakwater at Port Taranaki. We've sketched here several times before, but there's always something new to do. I decided on the breakwater and boats. I was looking into the sun. It's very interesting how this alters your perception of colour.

Here is my sketch:

Pencil and watercolour. I decided to go back to drawing my frame on the page before I start. This was completed on site in about an hour.

Colourize Project: Security Pipe

The marina off the breakwater at Port Taranaki has a weird gate that seems to be a large steel pipe with a door cut into it. Here's the colour version of a sketch from a few years ago.

Port Taranaki

The other day I was biking around the port area, looking for something to draw. I noticed a road sign that said 'Port View Crescent'. I've never been there before but with a name like that I went up the road hoping for a good view. Not much yet so I turned off a side street and had a nice open vista over Port Taranaki. Actually, between the end of a driveway and the start of an open grassy strip there was a park bench. I'm not sure who's it was but it overlooked the port and was out of the sun and under a tree. So if someone's reading this and noticed, "Hey... that's my bench", I hope you don't mind and thanks for putting it there!

2011 Dodge Challenger at Port Taranaki

Late afternoon sun on a car parked down near the breakwater at low tide. The days are starting to get longer now.

Rocks by the Sea

Sketched by Patricia

Boats Boats

Through the fence near Port Taranaki

Paritutu

Paritutu is a 150 metre tall volcanic rock on the coast of New Plymouth at Port Taranaki. It's a pretty weird mix of nature and industry here. You can climb the thing and see Mount Taranaki, the Tasman Sea and the natural coastline of cliffs and black ironsand beaches. Then turn around and you get the start of the port and tank farms. The smokestack that's there is from an old gas power station and is taller at about 200 metres.

Boat Launch

It was early morning down at the port and there were non-stop boats being launched. These crusty sailors have serious skills. I was watching them back a trailer into the water, dump the boat with a pilot on board and go park... all in one motion. It was like scrambling a squadron from the deck of an aircraft carrier. I drew the dock first and then was going to draw a launching in behind it, since they were mostly going in the water on that side. When it came time to sketch the boat, I started to notice how little time I had for each one. The good news (for me) was that this one boat had engine trouble. They had to put it back on the trailer and have a look at it. Without a motor it actually took quite a while to get back on to land. When I finished the dock after that, the same guys put the boat back in the salt water and they were away. All's well that ends well.

Kite surfers from East End Surf Club.

On a fine, but very windy day, I sat outside the East End Surf Club and had another try at sketching the kite surfers. They are certainly not easy as they are always on the move. I'm not sure how many there were. Definitely more than 10. The sea was quite rough and Port Taranaki was a bit hazy in the background. The wind was whipping up quite a bit of sea spray.

I think this is my best kite surfer sketch yet.

King Tugboat

The tide was super low this week - a king tide. The floating docks were barely above the bottom when I drew this. I was watching a couple of tugs guiding a large ship in to port. When the tide was in, it was very in. It washes up rocks, driftwood and plastic debris on to the shore and the coastal walkway.

Port Taranaki

The ENSCO- 107 jack up rig is in port It measures 71metres by 63m and covers about 4500m2. The rig has three legs each about 157m long.

The rig has been in New Zealand waters for about the last 15 months conducting offshore exploration,

Sketched by Patricia

Port Taranaki

Port Taranaki is home  to Breaker Bay  with seaside cafe's , boating and fishing clubs and well as the usual shipping stuff.  It is the main port for NZ's off-shore oil and gas drilling program.   In this 10 min.  sketch I've tried to illustrate the height contrast with the breakwater, the outer islands  and boats at anchor in the harbour.  MLB

Dry Dock

The long wait to get back in to the water.  Port Taranaki

Exocet

Here's a fishing boat that is double parked to the main launching dock. I'm not sure why since there were other places to berth to. The sailors had to climb to the larger diving ship and then to the dock to get supplies loaded. Important things like fuel and hot lunches from a nearby restaurant. About halfway through this one the ropes were untied and it sailed away. This is a bit worse than when cars do this.
The name Exocet has the same as an anti-ship missile and is French for 'flying fish'. I guess this is a good name although this doesn't seem to be a particularly fast vessel.