Summer for a day

People here are complaining about the weather just like they do back home. They're as eagerly awaiting some sultry summer days as Southern Finns are awaiting some proper snow.  Thursday was the first hot day since I arrived and already by 9.00 in the morning I had to open all the windows here in this little glasshouse on stilts in order to make it more comfortable. 

In the morning I spent ages trying to install the 'freely available' Maps application into my Nokia smartphones. In the Vodafone shop they'd warned me that 'you need a PC to install it' but, in reality, the application itself can be installed from the phone itself and using the WLAN connection. But just when I thought I'd managed to beat the PC requirement I found out that the regional maps themselves can only be installed and managed from a PC-based (XP or Vista) application. The excuse Nokia give on the web site is that it would be 'too expensive' to do this from the phone itself. Over WLAN!!? What are they thinking of, I thought this was a SMARTphone (read: For smart people who don't use XP or Vista). Seems that Nokia's software logistics' development is a few years behind their hardware. Imagine the iPhone if you could only install the apps via your 'PC' ?

But there was some hope yet as my 'Maps' application seemed to have some sort of map installed anyway. So having 'accidentally' triggered the 7-day trial of the walk/drive instructions function of the application I decided to go driving and test it out. The Nokia E71 had no problem in connecting with my external Nokia GPS bluetooth module, which generally provides a more practical method of positioning in vehicles. I stick it right underneath the lower edge of the windscreen with Blu-tack and the phone can be placed in easy viewing and hearing distance. I headed up State Highway 1 to visit the nearby Kapiti coast area and the little seaside village of Paekakariki, about 40kms from Wellington. A few kilometres out of Wellington on the motorway the voice assistance in the Maps application stopped working. I was off the map already! Well more work was obviously needed with this thing so the rest of the trip was devoted to sightseeing and photography. Lovely weather, lots of sunscreen needed. Here the sun really bites with a vengeance. I have been warned...many times.

The picture is of Kapiti island. It is a nature reserve but I've read you can make day trips there via a ferry.