Clear Day At Cape Farewell

I decided to be on time with the photo for today... check back later for more about this beautiful day at the South Island's northern-most point.

Paikea's View

I did say regular updating, didn't I? Oops. The past two days have been full of sleeping, organizing, catching up on the discovery and history channels, figuring out the next step in my life, and shrieking every time I ride in a car and think I'm on the wrong side of the road. I know you wanted to know all of that. I plan on putting together a book of my photos, but it has been slower going than I thought the process would be because of the high volume of photographs that I now have to conquer. For the post today, I asked my mom to name a place and/or activity of which to post a photo because it would have taken me another two days to go through and finally pick a photo to show y'all (and we wouldn't want that, would we?). I took this while on a whale watching tour in Kaikoura. What you see is the view from our boat, Paikea (name may sound familiar if you have seen Whale Rider), as a sperm whale is about to dive deep into the ocean.

You First...

This is another image from my spring break trip to the South Island (seems like only yesterday... or 2 months ago...what?). I took this somewhere between Franz Joseph and Makarora. Though it's beautiful, the West Coast is barely populated because of its ruggedness (yea, I want to see you trying to make it down to that beach...). I was reminded of this photo because my parents are coming to visit on the 21st, but only have two weeks to hit the best spots in New Zealand. You see, I haven't planned a trip since I've been here, I've just pointed at a map and headed in the correct direction (thank goodness for isites!). However, now I have to be a giver of advice and it have become more complicated than I anticipated. Apparently my subjective opinion is acting as an invisibility cloak over reality. Where is my enthusiasm from my arrival back in Auckland after an amazing two weeks in the South Island? I wanted to show my parents everything then, yet now I find myself being overly critical and selective. Yikes! (did studying change me that much!?!) I think my issue is that I want to be outdoors, tramping, taking photos, and letting the earth calm my soul before I just back into the excessive culture that is the states. Yet my parents are more keen on seeing everything possible (who can blame them though, this country is amazing).

My solution: come back to New Zealand after graduation with a friend who wants to live out of a campervan for a bit and do some real tramping and camping... any takers? please?

PS: I'm free! Exams are over! Time to let off the steam built up from cabin fever! However, I had a "poetic" moment (as Ben C. put it) yesterday when I took my last exam (for my favourite class, Politics and Media) in the same lecture hall that we had International Student Orientation in... I began and ended my sweet as semester at Auckland Uni in the same room... choice, bro.

Also, I'm very much looking forward to this documentary (and I don't say that often): Anne Perry - Interiors

No Worries

Continuing with the animal theme... these are some pretty chill seals outside of Kaikoura. If I had a wall of water coming at me I don't think I'd be scratching me ear (maybe that's just me). At any rate, I was delightfully and gently woken up today by the WSA fire alarm (sarcasm heavily intended). Note to whoever: when a fire alarm goes off, "fire alarm activated, stand by for further assistance," is probably not the best automated advice to give over the intercom. Something along the lines of, "fire alarm activated, get your butt outside," might do the trick.

Oh well, these made me feel better for having to wake up so early: Graphs of Favourite Songs

Critter

Today over skype I asked my mom what she type of photo she wanted to see today. She had a choice of a landscape, animal, or person. She chose animal, next she had a choice of a bird, seal, or crab. I guess you already figured out which one she chose. It's chilly and cloudy in Auckland today, making it easier to study... yet reminiscing of an adventurous spring break with Ben in Abel Tasman and a certain song that is completely stuck in my head are making it a bit hard to keep my head down. Here's a link so you can enjoy "My Delirium" too: You Tube. 1 exam and 2 days to go... :)

Bouncing Colour

Another spring break photo for today. I took this photograph while on a boat tour of the Milford Sounds. It was a pretty cold and rainy day, but that didn't diminish the wonders of the area for a second - in fact, it may have made the sites even grander. It was quite possibly one of the most magnificent places I have ever been (even if there are way too many tourists), so I didn't think any of the images that I took did it justice. Therefore I decided upon posting this photo simply because it shows the atmosphere of the day and I liked how you can see the picture that he is taking on the back of the camera (any one who knows me knows I love taking photos of people taking photos).

Water

I've been pretty slack this week on posting images, but it's been hectic around here. Every time I think it's going to calm down, the work load just picks up again. It's hard to believe that I only have two week left of classes (although, my last exam is not until the 11th of nov.) I took this image outside of Makarora, on the South Island over spring break. I liked the reflection on the lake as well as the steam rising off of it. It also ties in nicely to a link I want to share with you. I check the blog http://artisticthings.com weekly, it has some pretty out there stuff on it, but I always find something on it that absolutely blows my mind. Today I went searching the blog and landed on a link to Elena Kalis Photography. Her skill and creativity astounds me, I cannot stop looking at her photographs. Anyway, I just had to show y'all the link.

Unfortunately, the slack in updates is going to continue until Wednesday, because I will be just outside of Brisbane for the weekend. My main mission: to hug a koala. I hope you enjoy the links and I apologize again for being so lazy with updating!

Rope And A Hard Place

While exploring the island on the Stray Bus, we took a day hike/climb on the Franz Joesph Glacier. Once fully equipped with crampons, we made our way up the glacier, zigzagging along. It was tons of fun and an awesome way to get a work out. The ice and surrounding mountains were beautiful... but we did get in a few situations. I can see why they don't allow this in North America, but they definitely should. Why play it safe when you can have fun?

As beautiful as New Zealand is, you can only find these landscapes in the States: Huffington Post. I feel so fortunate to have visited all but 3 of these parks (thank you Block Breaks!)

Mirror Image

Mirror Lake - can you guess where it got it's name?

I promise longer posts next week, but this week has been crazy! So much work to do... it's hard to believe I only have 3 weeks left of classes and then 2 weeks of exams. I can't wait for classes to be over, but I'm really no where near ready to leave yet.

So Flash

Somewhere in the Golden Bay region.

The Good One

I took this image in Christchurch while we were waiting for the Stray bus to come pick us up on the start of our journey (for the 2nd week of spring break at least). It was the first time in my life I could say that I was happy to be in Christchurch and meant it (although every time I said it I shuddered at the thought of being back at that other Christ Church in my life). I didn't get to spend much time in the city, but I am hoping to go back with my parents and visit the areas surrounding it.

Cheers

The internet was out all day today and yesterday I went on a day trip back to the Coromandel Peninsula. Anyway, here is the photo for today. I am sad to say I don't know exactly where I took it. I just know that I took it out of the window of the Stray bus on our way from Makarora to Queenstown (closer to Queenstown) while on spring break.

Koru

I don't have much time to write today because I have two papers due on the same day next week and I want to write one today (have I mentioned how much I miss the block plan - having Mondays and Fridays off are great, but having 4 different subjects at once is not). Anyway, this is an image I took while tramping in the Abel Tasman National Park. I like the fact that you can see the fern in the background as well as the spiral in the foreground - both national symbols of New Zealand. I promise to post more landscape images soon, but I took over 5,000 images so I'm still sorting through them and I haven't had much time lately. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the ones I've put up so far!

Bogan

So, the last few posts have been named with New Zealand saying that have caught on with us Americans - or, at least we've tried to get to get in the habit of saying them. All I can say for boan though is to just look it up. I took this photo at Wharariki Beach (remember my other post here). In the photo is Ben again. I took this as the sun was setting and we were headed back to the car. You can see how rough the waters were that day, which made the whole expierence of Wharariki even more profound. We literally just sat and walked around the empty beach for 2 or 3 hours - losing track of time completely. With the elements extremely strong that day, everything seemed to be against us, but the beauty and isolation of the place kept us there. It was by far one of the most spectacular places I have visited to date. As Ben said, something about that day on that beach just made us understand a little bit better how the world works.

Layers

Another short post today because I am way way too busy. This photo was taken at Wharariki Beach, in the Golden Bay area of the South Island. I won't be able to post this weekend because I'll be off tramping and white-water rafting for IFSA-Butler's adventure weekend.

High Tide

So, Ben and I missed the water taxi we were supposed to take in order to do a day tramp, but instead of freaking out, we just took a few photos and then found another place to head off to (the Golden Bay area, which turned out to be absolutely amazing). This photo was actually taken during high tide, but during low tide, the tide falls back so much that you can literally drive on the sand for quite a distance. I'm pretty sure the sign was talking about the street, but I'd like to think that there are some people who would attempt to camp on the sand, only to wake up to waves. I guess I just enjoy amusing mental images.

Picture Frame

There are several well-known tips for always getting an interesting photograph. One of those is to frame your subject, so I did that here. Actually, I wasn't wondering into the cave just to frame these cool rocks on the beach; I just wanted to explore. However, when I turned around to walk out I realized I could get a great shot. I took this on Stilwell Bay in the Abel Tasman National Park. On this day, Ben and I tramped a little over 12km to the Bay and back; it was absolutely unspeakably gorgeous.

Model Pose

On our way from Nelson to Christchurch, Ben and I stopped to spend a night in Kaikoura. I instantly fell in love with it (you'll read that statement a lot in the coming posts). Once we got there, we met up with two other friends, Lauren and Jill, and went to a seal colony to hang out and take photos. Then, Lauren, Jill, and I decided that we wanted to wake up to see the sunrise - one of the best decisions made during my break. We woke up the next morning - not so bright, but very early - and went back to the seal colony. I'm a skier in Colorado, which means I get to see my fair share of sunrises in the rocky mountains on winter mornings that I didn't think could compare with anything else. However, I was wrong. Not only did I get to see snow capped mountains turn to gold, I also got to expierence the waves crashing at their bases while seagulls and seals wondered why we were disturbing their peace. It sounds like a scene from some Disney princess movie, but it was ten times better than that. On our way out of the parking lot, we noticed a group of very large (to say the least) seals and had to stop to capture them on our cameras. This was one of them...

Click Here to read an inspirational blog. It is written by Lisa Ray, who has been one of my favorite actresses ever since I saw Water (you may remember my blog post about it: here). Most people who know me, know that I love actors and actresses that haven't quite made it big; because when an actor or actress's high-profile personality gets bigger than his or her talent, it's time for me to tune out. I no longer see the character, I just see whoever is playing them. However, Lisa Ray is different. I have now seen five of her films and I never notice her, the actress, I notice and connect to her characters - that is what I consider great acting. However, now I am paying attention to her for another reason: because she's not afraid to talk about what the rest of us are afraid bout: cancer. Every single person I know has been effected by it, one way or another, which is probably what makes it so difficult to talk about it. However, if you still can't talk about it, at least you can read about it on Lisa Ray's incredible blog.

Droplet

This is pretty much the ultimate New Zealand image. The silver fern is New Zealand's national emblem and one can see it literally everywhere. I took this photo while tramping in the Abel Tasman National Park after a bit of rain had come through. I have tried to get so many fern photographs, but not that many seem to turn out well, so I was very excited when I saw that this one did. Abel Tasman is a marvalous area, with more beaches than one can count and so much more. Ben and I went on a tramp over 12km one day in the park and we didn't even see a 3rd of it. More photos of the beattuiful landscape of the South Island to come, so keep coming back!

Check out my youtube page for two videos I uploaded from the break (one of bungy jumping, one of skydiving): http://www.youtube.com/crescentcompositions
Click Here for my facebook album (mainly photos of friends on the trip).

The Elements

Just got back to Auckland after spending two wonderful weeks exploring the South Island. This is just a taste of photos to come. I took this while exploring caves on Wharariki Beach, easily the most spectacular beach I have ever seen in my life. The elements were in full force: the wind was pushing us off of our feet as the rain played stop-and-go with us while we ventured into different areas of the beach. In the photo is Ben, who I spent the first week of my spring break with. However, now I have to go to laundry and start working on the papers I have to write in the next two weeks, so you will have to wait for more information about how incredible the South Island is.