Karangahape Road

What seems a long time ago, I regularly went for a long run every Sunday morning, mostly with other runners from the club I belonged to. We based our training, and therefore the Sunday morning run, on Arthur Lydiard's training schedules. Often times, therefore, we did the famous Waiatarua circuit, although for whatever reason my best times in races were almost all done before I started doing that course. Enough nostalgia.

I still feel the urge to do a longer than usual run on the Sunday morning, which usually means that I go to the top of Maungawhau (Mount Eden), which takes just under an hour at my current speed. To get there I pass through Karangahape Road. At the time on a Sunday morning I go along here the night club patrons are spilling (sometimes falling) out into the street, and the taxis are lined up on both sides to get fares.

A day or so ago ReliantRobin commented that rather than photograph the pack of hounds she met on the road, she hastily got out of the way. In the past in this street at this time of a weekend morning, I have similarly chosen not to stop and take pictures, even though it would probably only result in verbal abuse at worst.

This morning, however, I so liked the vaguely threatening sky, and the way the roof lines at and beyond the bend in the road were silhouetted against that sky, that I did stop (somewhat before reaching the nightclubs, and after having passed the night ladies). Despite a number of pleasing photographs from later on in my run, when I had the opportunity for grander skies and clouds, and more expansive scenery, I have chosen this to blip.

The sky is suggesting that day is nigh, and soon there will be light. Yet the picture is dominated by the darkness of the street. Traffic lights, street lamps, advertising and vehicle lights all contribute some light; this is still a dark image. Yet not a frightening one; perhaps that is my familiarity with this area, as I have been going through here day or night for 40 years or so. The busyness of the street is hinted at by the number of vehicles to be seen when it is still not quite 0700 am on a Sunday morning.