Continue reading »]]> It’s not often I bake these days, in fact there have probably been only a handful of baking occasions in the last 10 years (Keryn bakes much more frequently). So today I baked, spurred on by bad weather, finishing a game (Portal 2, thanks for asking) and avoidance of packing. It wasn’t anything onerous, a simple brownie recipe taken from the Spicy Ice Cream blog.

Thankfully we had all the ingredients available at home so it was straight into the kitchen and mixing. I figured that it might be good to have proof of my endeavours so took a few photos along the way. The recipe was conveniently displayed on my touchpad (recently installed with the Cyanogen Android ICS OS and now much more useful), though now the touchpad has some flour on the edges of the home button which may come back to haunt me one day.

From there it was simply following the recipe and it was pretty much foolproof. Once everything was mixed and pored into the baking tray it was into the oven and then all I had to do was wait. Well, and do the dishes (you don’t see that part in the cookbooks).

All that was left was to take the brownie out at the right time and then wait for Keryn to come home. We had dinner (a simple reheating of leftover slow-cooked chicken laksa from the weekend) and then finally we were able to have dessert. The brownie was still warm (perhaps not warm enough) and tasted great, soft inside and crispy outside. The best bit is that there is plenty more for later :).

Continue reading »]]> I’ve been slowly thinking through what I might enter for two of the bigger NZ based competitions coming up, the DPhoto Amateur Photographer of the Year and NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year. For the NZ Geographic competition I can take some encouragement from the Flickr group they promote. The editor and photo editor are regularly going through the submitted photos and choosing favourites and every two months three photos are selected to be included in the next published magazine. One of my photos was selected for the latest magazine, issue 115, and I got paid for the privilege as well which is always a bonus.

Kudos must go to my sister Bridget. We visited Hamilton after our Auckland trip, staying just one night that happened to coincide with the night glow event. Keryn and I were blissfully unaware that the balloon event was on until Bridget suggested we attend. It was a pleasant evening watching the crowd grow and then the balloons first inflate and then glow in time to music.

Also coming out shortly from NZ Geographic is a book celebrating New Zealand using a selection of photos from the Flickr group submitted over the past 12 months. The book was to be called Image Nation but now has the name Southern Exposure, it may change again. I’ve got a photo in the book, a shot taken at the Malaysian Night Market in Wellington last year.

I’ve also had success in a couple of recent photo competitions. As last year I have been highly commended in the Guardians of Pauatahanui Inlet photo competition for 2012 in the wildlife section with following portrait of a pukeko.

And yesterday I found out I won the landscape category of Tiritiri Matangi 2012 photo competition with the Lighthouse and Stars photo. The photo will probably be included in the Tiritiri Matangi 2013 calendar so I’ll put a link up to where it can be purchased once its available. I suspect I’ll be using that photo in a few other competitions this year (terms and conditions allowing).

Continue reading »]]> I’ve been wanting to visit Tiritiri Matangi Island for a long time and our recent trip up to Auckland for the Elbow concert gave us a perfect opportunity. It’s possible to visit the island as part of a day trip but we decided to stay the night. There is a DOC managed bunk-house on the island where anyone can stay (so long as there is a bed available) and so we had duly booked ourselves in with fingers crossed for good weather.

The day dawned beautifully and the weather stayed great for the whole time we were on the island. Bio-security is taken seriously by DOC and we had made sure our bags were securely packed with no unexpected companions such as mice hiding anywhere. We were nice and early for the ferry from Gulf Harbour at the end of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. It wasn’t too long before we were all aboard the ferry and heading over to the island. Upon arrival we loaded our bags into the DOC ute and were then given a welcome followed by a brief run through of what we could see and do during our visit. There were three others staying in the same bunk room as us, an Australian woman who now lived in Auckland and her parents who were visiting from Western Australia.

We had booked an introductory guide of the island and the five of us were given a guided walk along the Wattle Track from the wharf up to the Lighthouse. We learnt a few things about the island and the recovery work that has taken place over the years and got to see some of the wildlife as well. My main aim was to see and hear kokako. The last time I had heard kokako was on a Junats camp many years ago where we had gone out early one morning to a place near Pirongia where some birds had been heard. I still remember the haunting call coming out of the trees on a damp and misty morning, though I don’t recall ever seeing a kokako.

Once we had been shown around the bunk-house and claimed some beds we were off on our own to explore the island. Our afternoon walk saw us heading out on the East Coast Track, crossing back through the centre of the island somewhere around Pohutukawa Cove and then walking down the Cable Road track to Hobbs Beach and then back up towards the bunkhouse. Tiritiri is an island full of birds and we saw plenty of korimako, tui, kakariki, tieki, toutouwai and hihi. Nearer the lighthouse there were takahe slowly moving around and cropping grass in small groups, often to be found with a few pukeko nearby as well.

We got lucky as we walked down Cable Road, Keryn spotting some bigger birds ahead in the grass. We approached slowly and got to watch a pair of kokako enjoying themselves over a meal of grass. We edged closer and eventually the pair hopped off the track and into the forest, but we were thankful just to have seen them and actually get a good look as well. Further along the track we came across a small family group of brown quail, moving around in the undergrowth when they thought we couldn’t see them.

We arrived at Hobbs Beach and had a good look at the large pohutukawa hanging over the small cliffs. The sea was calm and turquoise, the sun beating down and really there wasn’t anywhere we would rather have been. Walking back up the Wattle track we stopped at each of the small water troughs set up to give the birds somewhere to wash. There were also a nectar feeding station that was frequented by dozens of hihi and bellbird that spent more time chasing each other around in territorial gamesmanship than actually feeding.

The sky stayed clear into the evening. We made dinner in the bunk-house kitchen and I headed out to get some sunset shots. As the evening headed towards night I started noticing the stars and this far from the lights of Auckland the milky way was clear. I started playing with some longer exposures using the lighthouse as a focus point and got some good shots. Plenty of experimentation to come I think.

We then spent an hour or so walking around looking for kiwi and eventually found one by accident. Keryn was walking ahead of me and as I swung my torch around I noticed a kiwi no more than a meter from Keryn. Unfortunately the kiwi was spooked a little and rushed off further into the undergrowth but we still got to see it wandering around for a while in amongst the trees. Our kiwi sighting was a nice end to a good day.

The next morning I was up early for some more sunrise shots, walking back along the East coast Track.

Heading back to the bunk-house I had breakfast and we were then off again to explore more of the island. Again there was a multitude of birds to be seen and we saw a couple more kokako, this time also getting to hear some calling. We spent time just listening to the calling, peering at the surrounding trees and waiting for a glimpse that often never came. But that was OK, we knew they were there.

At the north end of the island we came across some staff from Auckland Zoo researching a mysterious feather disease effecting the local kakariki population. They had a number of mist nets set up and waited for birds to fly in to the nets where they could be analysed before being set free.

We snacked on a rocky beach where three shags were sunning themselves and then continued our walk. There was a takahe family walking over the low wiry scrub, the parents being followed around by their almost full sized offspring. The youngster was charcoal black, like it had been covered in soot.

We were getting tired and headed back to the lighthouse to make sure our bags were going to be loaded up when the ute arrived. We relaxed having our lunch at the visitor centre while tuis arrived and departed in flocks at the feeder positioned outside. The cheeky takahe named Greg paid us a visit looking for food scraps either dropped on within grabbing distance and left disappointed. Our last walk took us back down the Wattle Track, past the water troughs and the feeding station and the dozens of birds. I think we’ll be coming back to this wonderful island and spending more time watching the wildlife. Maybe next time we’ll see something new like tuatara or a gecko or if we’re really lucky a titipounamu (rifleman).

Continue reading »]]> Elbow is a band that only had a limited awareness of when we were in the UK. This was an oversight on my part, they’re now one of my favourite bands and now that we’ve seen them live they’re also one of my favourite live bands.

We drove up to Auckland for a Wednesday night concert at The Powerstation. We waited outside for doors to open and chatted with other people and the consensus was that the audience would be largely British and this proved to be the case. The concert was fantastic, right from the opening act Boy & Bear who impressed a crowd largely ignorant of this up and coming Australian band.

Everything turned up a notch when Guy Garvey and the rest of the band appeared on stage, the crowd enthusiastically applauding every song as Guy charmed us all, even suppressing the small loud group near the stage into quietness with his polite and gracious banter. For full reviews read the following, I think the Stuff article is the closest to the experience we had:

www.stuff.co.nz/…/Review Elbow at The Powerstation

www.nzherald.co.nz/…/Concert review: Elbow, Powerstation

And finally, a video just in case you haven’t heard of Elbow before, this is Lippy Kids off their latest album Build a Rocket Boys:

Continue reading »]]> On Friday night we made our way to Lyall Bay for an Adventure Wellington organised event. The plan was to cover a large section of beach in sand castles. It was all in aid of the Child Cancer Foundation with sponsor Southern Cross donating $1 for each castle constructed. In the end there were over 500 built on the beach and with other donations around $700 raised in total.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very nice on Saturday morning so the audience wasn’t as large as it could have been. We went back for a visit and the castles were holding up well in the rain, most seemingly now home to large groups of sand hoppers from the multitude of pockmarks covering the sand buildings. The Dominion Post had been informed and an article appeared online, it seems the event was quite popular with those locals who ventured out to the beach.

The upcoming events for Adventure Wellington seem to keep getting more inventive every month. There is an aquatic Olympics type event coming up in April that should be hilarious and I’ll be taking photos on the night seeing as my photographic abilities are far better than my swimming skills. Who knows what we’ll be doing with Adventure Wellington a year from now.

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The New Zealand International Arts Festival that has been on in Wellington finished yesterday. We only managed to get to one show in the end but it was a good one. Circenses by Circus Ronaldo was enormously fun combining a traditional circus show with the added drama of peak behind the scenes. For the first half we were in the audience watching the circus unfold, a love story eventually taking over from the feats of skill and strength on show. For the second half we switched with the other half of the audience and found seats behind the scenes and got to watch the same circus but this time we were privy to the backstage oranisation, dramas and snap decisions when things went wrong. Small mysteries from the first half show were solved as we saw cannons explode by mistake, tricks come undone through misadventure and the tensions between show members simmer and boil over. Things also changed so it wasn’t all the same second time around and the climax was surprising and entertaining.

There were a few well know people in the crowd, Sir Ian McKellen was front row for the second half and Kiran Shah, also in the front, was involved in a little bit of audience interaction with the knife throwing, wildly flirting, axe wielding strong woman. Keeping up with everything that was going on was part of the fun, everyone performing even when they looked like they weren’t doing much with little glances and brief interactions all part of the story.

Circus Ronaldo is a family run group with a history going back generations and there were three generations of Ronaldo in the show. If you get a chance to see these fantastic performers and their wonderful shows don’t think twice, just go and enjoy.

Continue reading »]]> Recently I visited Zealandia and explored a few areas I either don’t to much or hadn’t been to at all. The hour return walk up and down the Fuchsia Track was tiring but worth it for the views at the top. As always there was plenty of bird life for me to photograph, a few of the encounters are shown below.

Continue reading »]]> The continuing story of a fantastic Wedding day. Processing 2000+ photos takes a long time but I’m getting there. Here we have another set of previews, this time processed a bit more (maybe not to everyones tastes, needless to say Sam and Jules will get the less processed copies as well).

Back to the coal face for me then, another 800 or so to go.

Continue reading »]]> Recently we had the chance to visit the Maungatautari Ecological Island, a mountain in the Waikato that has 47km of fencing to keep predators out. Our visit was quite short but we saw enough to know we’ll be back. Much like Zealandia the predator eradication and fencing has allowed a sanctuary for native wildlife to be created, the main difference being Maungatautari is much larger in scope and has much more mature vegetation. With Bridget, Dean and Adam we visited the Southern Enclosure and spent an hour or so walking to the canopy tower and back.

The forest here was mature with soaring trees and a dense understory. It was a warm day but we spent most of the walk under the cool shade of the forest, only poking out when we climbed the tall tower. Nearby was a clearing with some bird feeders and here we got to watch Kaka climbing the surrounding trees and also disturbed the visit of a raged looking tomtit.

Walking back there were more birds, a bellbird I spotted feeding on pink berries, later on a grey warbler looking for bugs underneath leaves on a tree by the trackside and right at the end another tomtit arrived to watch us leave. Adam had fun being swung around between Keryn and myself as we walked and then raced around exploring the stream we crossed on a sturdy bridge.

It may have been a short visit but I saw more than enough to want to visit again, maybe next time to traverse the mountain on a much longer hike.

Continue reading »]]> Day 2 was the big day and the weather was glorious with sunshine, the odd fluffy cloud and a gentle breeze keeping temperatures manageable. We had a slow start with breakfast at the cottage we were sharing with Jen & Paul and their little cutie Mathilde. Then we were off to get photos of Sam getting ready at a house nearby in Martinborough.

From there it was on to the Wedding venue and soon after the bride arrived and the ceremony was under way. A poignant and very personal sequence of vows followed and the couple finished with a kiss and walked back past the assembled guests through a shower of rose petals.

We had a full afternoon of photos with groups followed by some fun on a couch set up on the lawn underneath a tree that now had a chandelier hanging from the branches. The bridal party then took a walk to a nearby field of Cabbage Trees and with the addition of some large balloons we got some unique photos.

The amazingly decked out barn was the site of the reception with funny and sincere speeches and then a meal followed by cake cutting and dancing into the night. The happy couple finished the evening by exiting past a forest of people holding sparklers, a fiery end to a fantastic day.