Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Video: The Mission Concert



Click on the title above, or the link below for a short video clip taken at the Eric Clapton concert at The Mission. Produced by Shakey Hand Productions.


Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Eric Clapton concert

Some pics from the Eric Clapton concert at The Mission winery in Hawkes Bay - 25,000-strong crowd.





















Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Morning skyline

Taken this morning, from Parnell

Parnell garden statue - weekend photo


Shot of the Day





















Pieter Viesnik paperweight

Some pics from Onehunga

Second hand book store and street furniture


Know your left from your right ?

(Source: The Guardian) Hilarious extract from a book about growing up in a politically conscious household..... has some interesting points to consider..... here is a sample:
In the early Seventies, my mother searched the supermarkets for politically reputable citrus fruit. She couldn't buy Seville oranges without indirectly subsidising General Francisco Franco, Spain's fascist dictator. Algarve oranges were no good either, because the slightly less gruesome but equally right-wing dictatorship of Antonio Salazar ruled Portugal. She boycotted the piles of Outspan from South Africa as a protest against apartheid, and although neither America nor Israel was a dictatorship, she wouldn't have Florida or Jaffa oranges in the house because she had no time for then President Richard Nixon or the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. My sisters and I did not know it, but when Franco fell ill in 1975, we were in a race to the death. Either he died of Parkinson's disease or we died of scurvy. Luckily for us and the peoples of Spain, the dictator went first, although he took an unconscionably long time about it.

Read on ! :) - with a cuppa or a glass of wine. (Click on the title link above.)

World is running out of water



(Source: The Guardian) The world is running out of water and needs a radical plan to tackle shortages that threaten the ability of humanity to feed itself, according to Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN's Millennium Project.

Professor Sachs, who is credited with sparking pop star Bono's crusade for African development, told an environment conference in Delhi that the world simply had "no more rivers to take water from". The breadbaskets of India and China were facing severe water shortages and neither Asian giant could use the same strategies for increasing food production that has fed millions in the last few decades.

Ethanol fuel hit as price of oil drops but corn soars

(Source: NZ Herald) Interesting dilemma:
The economic viability of ethanol as an alternative to petrol has been thrown into question as the oil price fell below US$50 a barrel yesterday for the first time in nearly two years, while the price of corn - the main ingredient in the new fuel - surged to a new 10-year high.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Family pics


Taken at Christmas.



Sunday, January 7, 2007

Holiday: Places

Here is a variety of video clips profiling some of the interesting places we visited - click on the links BELOW:

Havelock North (Hawkes Bay) - the village where we stayed









Waimarama Beach (Hawkes Bay)





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rIQddQAghg

Mahia Peninsula (near Gisborne)





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apA30RO20ls

Gisborne - where Capt James Cook landed as the first European in NZ









Ohope (near Tauranga)






Karangahake Gorge (near Waihi)

Holiday: People


Here is a montage of some of the interesting people we came across - click on the title above or the link below for the short video clip.

Holiday: Shopping


No holiday is complete without some shopping - click on title above or the link below for the short video clip.

Holiday: Friends


Of course we caught up with some of our friends - here is the video clip (title above or link below).



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqlUJnowqjs

Holiday: Wineries


Hawkes Bay is well-known for its stunning wines - some wine-tasting was mandatory :) Click on the title above or the link below for the short video clip.

Holiday: Architecture



Video clip: the Hawkes Bay region is known for its art deco architecture - this video is a sample - click on the title above, or on the link below:

Holiday: Landscapes


Here is a video clip of some of the stunning landscapes we visited in Hawkes Bay, Mahia, Gisborne, and the Bay of Plenty. (Click on the title above above or this link):

Friday, January 5, 2007

The Holiday

Hello, and welcome to my first posting in 2007. We have just returned from a very relaxing holiday during which we spent 10 days travelling around Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty. For my overseas friends, these areas are all on the eastern side of the central North Island. We caught up with friends, and tasted wine from a number of the local wineries. We went to a few beaches, did some local shopping and coffees at the cafes, and thoroughly checked out the Hawkes Bay countryside and art deco architecture. The weather was pretty good, and on returning to Auckland we discovered that summer has finally arrived here as well. I will shortly be uploading some pics and video clips from our trip, so you can share our memories.