Category: Plogging

  • Place as the Protagonist

    Place as the Protagonist

    The Plog Vlog video I published this week is the first where I’ve really focused on the place being the protagonist, telling its story rather than using Plog Vlog to encourage others to participate in plogging. There are a few reasons why I’ve made this change, but I’ll stick to explaining the most important one below.

    The Plog Vlog YouTube channel subscribership grew rapidly until two things changed: (1) I started focusing the videos towards an Australian (rather than global) audience, and (2) the political landscape of the world altered. New subscribers slowed, halted, and then subscriber numbers began to dwindle (from a peak of just over 59,000 subscribers).

    Surprisingly, I was relieved. It gave me the freedom to just do and create whatever I enjoyed. This week’s video is the first to fully come out of this enjoyment of plogging, filming, and learning about a place.

  • For My Own Enjoyment

    For My Own Enjoyment

    I enjoy plogging, I enjoy filming, and I enjoy writing. Perhaps that’s the purpose of this blog for me? It fulfils the enjoyment trio, giving me a chance to write about plogging and the things that happen when I plog. I think that sounds like a good purpose for this Plog Vlog Blog!

    Today is a day off plogging, and a day off filming. I’ve covered a lot of kilometres running, walking, and plogging this week. I’m going to try to force myself to not be too active and to get some video editing done instead.

    I don’t mind video editing, but I admit to not liking it as much as being out plogging and filming. I’m not good at sitting still for very long.

  • Plogging as Adventure

    The blog that came along with obtaining the www.plogvlog.com URL is an opportunity that I still haven’t quite decided how to use. I think that it might be a chance to share the adventure side of plogging.

    Today, I plogged the trail to the active volcano Mt Ngauruhoe and took a swim at the freezing Taranaki Falls. I removed every piece of rubbish I found in the 11kms I covered, but I admit that adventure was as much a motivation as cleaning up trash.

    The Plog Vlog videos I create are about plogging the places, deliberately not about my adventures. Perhaps this blog could be about those adventures?

  • Free Ride to Plog a Supervolcano

    I bummed a ride this morning from Palmerston North (in the North Island of New Zealand) to the little city of Taupo, which sits on the rim of a giant volcano crater. While it’s currently dormant, scientists keep a close eye on it because of its supervolcano status.

    Lake Taupo is one of the largest and most active supervolcanos on the planet, not by surface area but by explosive power.

    The city of Taupo was nauseatingly busy today due to a car race happening this weekend, so I escaped to plog a little park overlooking the town of Kinloch.

    The flowers were left to remember the local resident recognised on the plaque near the seat: Yvonne Maureen Pitt.

  • Plogging Mt Cleese

    The comedian John Cleese took some deathly piss out of Palmerston North many years ago, so another comedian Fred Dagg named a huge pile of local litter after John. It’s now a recycling station, topped with green waste compost.

    Maybe I could be buried there after I “take my terminal breath”?!

    When I grow up, I want to be compost.

    Here’s the Instagram reel about plogging Mt Cleese.

  • Is Plogging a Biohazard?

    Mystery solved: My bag wasn’t lost. New Zealand biosecurity officers were stumped by my padlock and couldn’t check out something dubious inside.

    It wasn’t my new plogging tongs (deliberately brought to avoid biosecurity concerns); it was my wife’s hand cream, because it looked like a jar of honey 🤣.

    I’m now ready to start plogging Aotearoa at dawn tomorrow.

    These metal plogging tongs replace my usual bamboo tongs, to avoid biosecurity problems!

  • Plog Vlog Ended Up with a Blog

    Capturing the plogvlog.com URL came with a convenient blogging platform and the question “What to do with this opportunity?”.

    Feijoas growing at where I’m staying – No luggage but no lack of free food!

    Plog Vlog is about plogging beautiful places, with the places being the protagonists of the vlogs. Plog Vlog isn’t a travel vlog, so it doesn’t tell the story of getting to the plogging locations. This blog could tell those stories.

    I’m writing this in Palmerston North, New Zealand, after trip involving a cancelled flight and lost luggage. I’d planned to film plogging around Mt Cleese this morning, but my plogging tongs and camera mounts are in that lost bag. So, instead, I’m sitting at a table typing this in my one set of clothes tasting my unbrushed teeth. I’ve got my cameras and not much else; cameras aren’t much use for maintaining personal hygiene.

  • Cancelled and Bagless in Auckland, New Zealand

    Getting to New Zealand from Australia was uneventful, but both the transport south and my bag have gone AWOL. Let’s hope that the bag shows up before my next opportunity to head to Palmerston North (502km away).

    At least I have my cameras, so I can still film plogging.

    There are some obstacles to hurdle before I can ‘get exploring’.

  • Off to Plog New Zealand

    It has been exactly a year since I was last in New Zealand, and that’s way too long!

    I’m going to plog some beautiful places while I’m there. I might even find Mt. Cleese.