Been awhile since the last post.  We’ve been pretty, pretty, pretty busy.  Since last time we’ve been down to Wellington, Taupo, and Rotorua.  It has been a great road trip.  We packed up Bret’s van and headed down the coast.

First we made it down to Wellington and visited a family friend named Glenys.  She lived in a part of Wellington that I was unfamiliar with since my last trip to New Zealand two years ago.  There are a few bays in Wellington, and she lives overlooking the more residential of the bays.  The place she has is absolutely gorgeous.  It is a brand new, very modern complex, sitting right across the street from the water.  From her deck on the 6^th floor, I could get some nice shots.  Staying with her was a blast.  We enjoyed all the local breakfast and lunch spots, and she prepared us some lamb shanks for dinner one night.  It was the tastiest lamb I’ve ever had.  My compliments to the chef. 

We said our goodbyes and drove up to Taupo, which sits in the middle of the North Island overlooking a spectacular lake.  The place we stayed in didn’t have the modern elegance of Glenys’ place, but it wasn’t lacking in style.  We didn’t have a view, but what we did have was a geothermal tub, heated floors, heated towel racks, wifi, and Sky Sports to watch Manchester United’s opening game win over Newcastle.  Suffice to say, we felt pretty spoiled.

Now my brother and father are a bit to scared to go skydiving (which I wanted to do again) but we did get to enjoy the thrill of the local white water rapids in a unique way.  Only in New Zealand can you go on a jetboat through rapids, and that’s just what we did.  I’ve been white water rafting many times, but this was a whole different experience.  Charging 70kph down AND up white water rapids in a 850hp jetboat was very exhilarating.  By the end of the 45 min trip, we were all teary eyed from the wind, with a smile that seemed to stick for the rest of the day.

Next we went on to Rotorua, where we did not spend the night, but after our day activities continued back up to New Plymouth with my grandfather.  But before that treacherous drive through the mountains in the pouring rain, we enjoyed a gondola ride up the mountain in Rotorua.  I split off and explored some hiking trails with my camera bag and tripod, while my brother and father enjoyed the thrill of downhill lugging.  I got some great shots, and they had some great races; though it is hard to tell who won when you hear each side of the story. 

After that we drove just outside Rotorua to the birthplace of Zorbing.  If you don’t know, Zorbing is when you are put inside a 5ft rubber ball that is suspended by giant elastics connected to a 12ft rubber ball, and then are hurled down a giant hill.  Once again, it is like nothing you’ve ever experienced.  I snapped a few shots of my brother tumbling down the zig-zag course and being birthed from the hube Zorb with a smile stretching ear to ear.

 I’ve still got to edit quite a few of the images uploaded here, especially the overproccesed HDRs, but I just wanted to get them up on the blog for the time being. So now we’re back in New Plymouth with my grandfather about to enjoy a competitive game of Scrabble.  Hopefully another update to come soon.  :)

Got an early start this morning.  Went out for a drive and found some spots for some photos.  Got a nice shot across a valley along to Paritutu. 

Then we headed along the coastal walkway to the new bridge.  Met up with a photographer who shoots for the Taranaki calendar.  Chatted with him for a bit and gave me a few tips for some shots to take down the road.  Quite a nice guy.  This is going to have to be a short post, time for some Scrabble with the family.

Recently went out to visit my Dad’s friend Howard.  He lives about 20 min up the coast in a small town called Mimi.  He is the one with the amazing property.  He owns 36 acres of hilly farmland that stretches to the coast.  Sporting a waterwheel, waterpumps, solar panels, and a slew of fruits and veggies, Howard is pretty much fully self-sufficient.  It really is quite amazing the way he gets on in his own little paradise.

We arrived and took a quick look over his workshop.  Howard is a sculptor of rock and wood as his passion, and works on many film sets that take place in New Zealand.  Next we did some catching up over a cup of coffee while looking out on the hills and river that leads down to the ocean about ¼ mile away.

After a caffeine boost, we took a stroll down the hills and made our way to the beach.  It was low tide so we got a nice long walk down the beach.  I was snapping away, straggling behind the group as we approached a cliff up ahead.  The rocks below are mostly seabed that has washed up over the years.  It is very interesting to peek around, because in many of the rocks you can find fossils.

Sadly, by this point a storm had made its way down the coast to us, so we started to head back.  Once back, a few more cups of joe, and a bit of a snack was about enough to call it a day at Howards.  We then headed back to my grandfather’s house and enjoyed the local rugby game played just down the road.

Overall, a pretty good day :)

Day 2 in New Zealand

Woke up this morning, local time 5am; pretty good for the jetlag.  It helped that we stayed quite busy yesterday after we were picked up from the airport in New Plymouth.  My aunt Suzanne and Grandfather picked us up mid-morning and we headed back to my Grandfather’s house, although Suzanne had to head back to work promptly.  There we did some catching up with my Grandfather for a while, who hasn’t changed much since my last visit in 2007.  Still a stubborn fool who refuses to wear his hearing aid, going on and on about The War, and asking over and over when the rugby or football game is on.

After a bit of catching up, my dad and brother and I went out in my Grandfather’s car.  We parked downtown by the beach and walked up and down the main drag, checking out a few shops as we went.  Then we walked up and down the ocean-front path for a bit before heading back to the car.

Next we drove on to stop at a few local beach spots along the windy coast.  Low tide made it nice to do a bit of exploring on the beach.  We stopped along the marina and walked out the pier to look back on the harbor and breathtaking landscape.

We stopped at a few parks to take a walk through and then swung by the market for a few things for teatime :p  The rest of the night was spent playing Scrabble and eating some delicious local steak.  We all crashed pretty early last night and got a good nights rest.  Today we are heading to my dad’s best friend Howard’s place.  He owns one of the most amazing plots of land that I have ever seen.  Got to go, we are heading out soon.

More to come soon.

Purgatory aka Terminal

Hello,

So here I am, waiting in the United terminal at Logan.  And it is quite a start to this long trip.  The gate has been switched two times.  They make an announcement over the loudspeaker and everyone quickly gets up, and flocks to the next gate.  By watching these people, you would think the race to the gate would make the plane get here just that little bit faster.

But now we are all hoping for another gate switch.  Some sort of emergency bell has been going off at the door to the plane for the past 45 minutes and it is driving everyone up a wall, before we have borded.  We've had a slew of people walk up with that 'know-how' look of how to fix this infernal ringing, but to no avail.  So to keep my mind off of the problem, I've been getting some snapshots of the angry people sitting around the gate.  *edit* Only uploaded a few because this free internet is pretty shaky.

Enjoy

Hello and Welcome

Good evening folks.  Or good morning, depending on where you currently are on this planet Earth.  I created this blog to chronicle the trip I will be taking; to bring the experience to you in a media rich way, going past the words and sentences.

Tomorrow I depart from Logan Airport in Boston at 6:25pm.  I fly across country and touchdown at LAX at 9:50pm.  There I will join my younger brother Sean, and my father Grant, who fly from Connecticut.  We will then embark on our flight from LAX at 11:45pm on Tuesday the 3rd, landing in Auckland, New Zealand and hopping an hour flight to New Plymouth, arriving at 10am on Thursday the 5th.  Now that is what I call time slipping away!!  Luckily on the way back at the end of the month, I get to live the same day twice ;)

So I'm all packed, except for my computer and a few cameras and lenses.  Those will find their proper place in my bags tomorrow on my ride to the airport from my aunt.  I am so excited to see all of my family in New Zealand.  It is always a memorable time spent with great people in such a great place.  I do hope I find the balance between time spent with family and time spent sneaking off to photographize.

My aim is for this to be the last media free post.  Images and videos to follow my good followers.