Day 144. Dec 22nd. “Mosaic Garden – Lake Taupo”. We went for a walk to the scenic Huka Falls downstream from Lake Taupo. It’s about a 3km walk along the Waikato River. It rained intermittently – usually every time I took my rain jacket off. In the end I kept it on and just sweltered in the humid morning air. The water on the Waikato River is unbelievably clear at this point and the walk was incredibly beautiful so I didn’t mind the weather much. We took the advice of our Lonely Planet Guide and went to the L’Arte Café for lunch. Its about a 10 minute drive outside of the town. Only we found that the café was closed until after Christmas! But the surrounding gardens were full of interesting sculptures and mosaics. So I took a photo of Janet sitting on a great big mosaic sofa. In the afternoon I went bungy jumping much to Janet’s horror.
Day 145. “Muddy Waters Café and Car”. We left Taupo in the morning and drove through the Tongariro National Park to Wellington. We planned to have lunch in Wanganui. The Muddy Waters Café looked interesting, so we stopped there, only to find it was closed. New Zealand was beginning to feel like Italy. But I took this photo anyway, mainly because of the old car parked outside.
Day 146. “Cuba Street Graffiti”. Our friend Bill has an uber cool apartment in Wellington on Cuba Street. He has kindly let us stay here as he is away over Christmas and New Year. The surrounding area is full of interesting shops, cafes, bars and people. There is also lots of good graffiti. I took this photo of the buildings across the way from Bill’s balcony.
Day 147. Saturday 25th December. “DJ and Glen @ Christmas”. DJ is Janet’s hairdresser and a friend of ours from Distracted. He is staying with his partner, Glen in Wellington for a few months. They came over for Christmas brunch and stayed until about 4pm, when they had to leave to go to another dinner with other friends. The weather was perfect today.
Day 148. “Pink markers and pink plimsoles”. We caught the cable car to the top of the Botanic Gardens and then followed the pink flower markers back down to the city. It was a beautiful walk through the various gardens. Along the way I photographed Janet’s pink shoes on either side of a pink flower marker. Further down the hill we passed through an old graveyard with its crumbling gravestones. I took a few shots with my i-pod using the Hipstamatic App. Must come back to take more shots.
Day 149. “Te Papa Bugger Up”. We spent the morning in the Te Papa Museum marveling at the Marae and ocean crossing vessels. At the end I thought I would take a photograph of the Maori sculptured gates on an upstairs level, so raced back up the stairs, while Janet settled into the gift shop. But just as I got my Holga out my bag and was adjusting the settings, I accidentally pressed the shutter release. I had no idea what I had photographed, so I took a photo of the sculpture anyway, but obviously not sure how it would all come out. Afternote: it actually turned out quite well as I got a double exposure of the sculpture gates and the exposure was OK.
We saw a retrospective exhibition by Brian Brake (one of NZ’s best known photographers). Great photos, but I was disappointed to find out that one of my favourite photos of all time (of an Indian girl looking up into the rain and smiling) was a staged shot.
Day 150. “Wellington Wall” Heavy rain overnight with a northerly gale. And it kept raining for most of the morning, so we spent our time indoors. In the late afternoon the sun came out briefly so we dashed out to take some photos. I took this shot of a graffiti filled building wall because the face was reminiscent of Maori war-like tattoos.
Day 151. “Flax Cottage Bench”. We drove from Wellington to Napier today, but not before having breakfast at Lyall Beach with Janet’s friend Brad. We are staying just north of Napier along the Northern Road. Flax Cottage is perched up on small hill surrounded by vineyards and with great views across the bay to Napier. It had an interesting old bench on the veranda so I took this photo of Janet as we shared a glass of wine before dinner.
Day 152. “Napier Vintage Car”. We spent the day wandering around Napier, admiring the Art Deco architecture and browsing through the numerous interesting vintage shops. In the afternoon we took an Art Deco tour. Along the way we passed a vintage car which I thought would make a good photo. Discovered that the batteries in my Holga have run flat, so the remaining photos on this roll will all have to be daylight photos. Annoying.
Day 153. “Napier Sculpture”. We spent another day in Napier, admiring the architecture and shopping. We took a detour of the iconic sculpture of Pania on the Reef, but I was under whelmed. After lunch I took a photo of another sculpture located on the main street of a young 1920’s woman walking her dog and waving to some unseen friends. To me, it so captured the Art Deco which pervades the town.
Day 154. “Matamata Café”. Home of the world’s grumpiest barrista. We drove to Auckland today and had a picnic lunch along the way. Afterwards we stopped in Matamata for a coffee. It was memorable only for the sour disposition of the woman who served me at the only open café in the town. Perhaps she was recovering from a big New Years Eve Party.
Day 155. “Fuller’s Ferries”. We caught a ferry to Devonport this morning and walked around the quaint town. We strolled up to the top of Mount Victoria, which is really just a volcanic knoll, but it does provide excellent views of Auckland and the surrounding islands. In the tradition of “shots from my hotel room”, I took this photo of a ferry as it departed from the terminal in the late afternoon.
Day 156. “Diamond Princess”. The hotel told us to draw our curtains as the sealiner, the “Diamond Princess” would be docking alongside our hotel in the morning. “Surely it can’t be this high”, I said, “We are on the 6th floor”. We watched it sailing into port at first light and moor on the wharf besides our hotel. It was taller than our floor, plus a whole lot more. I took a double exposure of the logo and a life raft from our hotel room. We flew back to Perth in the afternoon.
Day 157. “Varga Girl – Oxford Street”. Back in Perth and back on the bike for the first time in about two months – riding to and from work. On the way home I snapped this shot of the logo above Varga Girl in Leederville.
Day 158. “Post Holiday Unpacking (or the photo that went missing…). I thought I had taken a photo of the unpacking chaos in our dining room, post our holiday, but either it didn’t come out at all (can’t see any traces in the Varga Girl shot) or I was hallucinating. Anyway it was supposed to be the last shot of Roll #8 as I felt that the flat batteries in my Holga were stifling my creativity, so I was going to take out the film and replace the batteries.
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