Hotwater Beach & Cathedral Cove

Hey Everyone!

So for this trip Alyse, some friends, and I took a coach out to Coromandel Peninsula, about 3 hours East of Auckland. The next few posts will highlight our time there; I took a bunch of pics so I figured I should separate them.
We stopped off at Hotwater beach on the way, aptly named for the springs that gurgle up hot water on the beach (at low tide). As the pictures show, it was a bit crowded, this beach being an increasingly popular tourist destination. With only a few minutes before the bus headed out again, I just snapped a few pictures.
Our next stop was a beach nearby, where we hopped on a dinghy that took us all around the various coves and caves. It's not readily evident from the photos, but we were flying around the rocks, making photography a somewhat haphazard affair (also true on account of the large body of water surrounding my treasured, not waterproof, camera).
Composing a nice shot was less a matter of actually thinking about composition / subject / timing and more about pointing the camera in the general direction of something moderately interesting, taking lots of wide-angle pictures (the better to crop / tilt later), and praying at least one of them wouldn't have the side of the boat covering everything except sky.
Most pictures did not survive the iPhoto chopping block.
After that we hopped back on the coach, and got to stop by a winery for a free tasting since the coach driver knew the owner. New Zealand wines, by and large, leave something to be desired (it's very moist here). They did have a mean feijoa liquer, but it was a bit out of my price range, and I haven't really figured out what sort of food one has with a liquer (if any)... they seem like such strange spirits.

Anywho, more to continue next time!

--David

PS: I just thought I should throw in this link to a wikipedia article about moas. They are so intense! Since the Māori got rid of them, the islands have been pretty much completely devoid of any animals threatening to humans (except the "West Island", which is chock full of scary critters).

Party Like it's 1812

Tēnā Koutou!
(Hello, everyone!)

For my next installment of memories and adventures I thought I'd share Alyse and my visit to the Auckland Domain Park (where, incidentally, Alyse is hanging out today with some friends). We heard about this event a few days after arriving here, and knew right away it was something we would enjoy: a classical music concert / picnic featuring a full symphonic rendition of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture set to fireworks. Upon arrival an hour or so before the show was to start, we found a huge crowd gathered, setting up blankets and baskets of food.

We had prepared some sandwiches and a fruit salad, which went nicely with a bottle of terrible Australian chardonnay we picked up on the way out there. That, along with a bag of chips and some ice cream we bought from some UNICEF volunteers, made for a feast of kings as we sat and watched the show.

I had fun futzing with my camera in the retreating light (most of the photos I took were too smeary to post). We didn't know what other songs were to be performed there, so we had fun being surprised at each successive change of performers. We stood and hummed as the Kiwis sang (and swayed to beat) to Pomp and Circumstance, belted out with the best of them to a soloist singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, danced to a waltz (I forget the name), and finally prepared ourselves for the feature event.

Not only were there fireworks during the finale, but as the pictures show there was a LASER SHOW, and HOWITZERS from the New Zealand Army! This being the first time I heard the 1812 live, the artillery reports going off in time made for quite a spectacle. Without getting too political, I must say I think the Kiwis have it right in using their siege engines for concerts at public parks rather than their intended purpose.

Altogether an awesome evening, which led to some fun pictures for teh interwebs [sic], too. Hope all of you are doing alright back home! If anyone's actually reading this, comments are totally appreciated!

Until next time,

David