For years now I’ve had a monthly reminder in my calendar to check for availability to visit Gibbs Farm, a sculpture park featuring a large number of mammoth commissioned artworks situated north of Auckland on hilly farmland adjacent to the Kaipara Harbour. Earlier this year I was surprised to find some dates available in November […]
From Bethells to the Zoo via the ‘Tron
We’ve had a good extended Queen’s Birthday weekend up north. Travis recently turned 40 so we stayed with him for a couple of nights along with Phil and Elaine who had come down from Whangarei for a couple of days. Taking advantage of some wonderful weather we had a family outing to Bethells Beach where […]
Competition results, a book and a calendar
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 […]
Tiritiri Matangi Island
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 […]
Wednesday is for drinking with the seldom seen kid
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 […]
U2
We travelled up to Auckland last week, primarily to see U2 on Thursday night at Mt Smart Stadium. Along with Keryn’s parents, Travis and Sophie we drove to the stadium (so glad we didn’t use public transport) and found parks easily enough, if a little distant from the stadium itself. Approaching the stadium we could […]
Looking for whales, finding only dolphins
The day after our Auckland photo walk we took advantage of more good weather to book a Hauraki Gulf Safari, the decision aided by Travis and Sophie having obtained very cheap tickets. We barely saw a swell on the four hour trip around the Gulf and it was warm in the sun which was just […]
Photo walk in Devonport
We were up in Auckland for Keryn’s Mum’s birthday and this coincided with the 2010 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk. Last year I joined the Wellington walk and as we were up north I joined the walk taking place in Devonport. Keryn, Sophie and Travis all came along as well and the day was beautifully […]