Chinese new year with family

It is that time of the year again, a time for family members to gather, a time to celebrate, a time to rejoice. It is the year of rabbit this year. This year, i have the luxury of being on holiday for two months. Sadly, my wife's leave application got turned down, hence my Chinese new year celebration in Auckland instead of Malaysia. On the better side of things,my folks and sister flew to Auckland for the new year gathering. Their trip was fairly short, which limited our choices when it came to planning our out-of-Auckland trip. In the end we spent most of our time together exploring Auckland. We spent a sunny afternoon at Cornwall park. Then on the following day we took a ferry to Waiheke island and spent a night there.

Cornwall park is one of the many parks in Auckland city. Together with the neighbouring park One tree hill, Cornwall park is the biggest parkland in central Auckland. Here, you will find an interesting landscape formed by many hills and terraces, a result of volcanic activity in the distant past. One tree hill, the neighbouring park is centered on an inactive volcanic cone. Built around this cone, was ancient Maori fortresses from the pre-European era. They said the domain was called One tree hill because there used to be a tree standing solo on the hill top. Unfortunately, that tree has suffered from some kind of disease and had to be removed. All we are left with now is a monument on the hill top. Nevertheless, Cornwall park and One tree hill domain are still an excellent place to have a stroll, jog or summer barbeque. Speaking of the latter, there are dedicated areas with permanent built in BBQ facilities for everyone. There are extensive walkways and walking paths running between the mature oak and Kauri trees. There is even a Cornwall restaurant in the middle of the park, a popular venue for weddings.


Here is a shot of my sister sitting on the floating roots of a tree.

Mum and dad seemed to have a good time walking around the park.  Here is a shot i took of mum, with my camera close to  the ground. It was difficult to get the subject in focus when i couldn't actually see through my view finder. The live view mode on my D90 has never been working that well for me somehow. I prefer using the viewfinder but i was reluctant to get dirty lying with my tummy down on the tarmac. In the end, i think i got the effect i wanted.

 

The following photo is one with my sister trying out her photography skill with her iphone. Hers is a 3Gs, not the one with the 5 megapixel chip that you will find in iphone 4, which is the one i'd much prefer. I am amazed by the picture quality an iphone 4 can produce. I have been wanting to get a pocket camera that i can bring to dinner parties. Sometimes, lugging a big DSLR to a dinner party is just not very "cool". I was eyeing on the Canon S95. Lately, i have been thinking maybe i should wait until my current cellphone (a Nokia) goes kaput and needs replacing, then i will get an iPhone 4 or iPhone 5 if they have one by then. It just makes more sense to me that way, since i carry my cellphone everywhere i go anyway. Why bother filling up another one of your pocket with another chunk of electronic device when the one that you use as a phone is perfectly capable of producing nice photos. Afterall you are not doing a proper photoshoot for fashion magazine at a dinner party. The 5 megapixel lens with a large aperture of f2.5 should do the job most of the time.

 

We spent 15 minutes observing the cows at Cornwall park. My sister lives in Australia. They don't get to see cows or sheeps unless they travelled far out from the city. Who would have thought you can see so many cows grazing the parkland in the middle of Auckland. That is exactly what i love about Auckland. It's a big little city. It is big enough for most things but small enough to blend rural into your buzy urban city life. Fantastic if you ask me.

We spent a day on Waiheke island.  We departed from the Auckland main ferry terminal at the viaduct. The ferry to Waiheke departs from pier 2.  

My sister on the ferry.

The place we stayed in was Anzac villa. Here are some photos taken at the property.

The villa is quite an old premise but fairly well maintained. You will find many little decorative details in the house, which add a personal touch to the villa. I have found the villa quite "funky". Most importantly, it is very clean.  The kitchen is well equiped with oven , cooktops, microwave, kettle and all kinds kitchen utensils.  The island's biggest supermarket, the Woolworth is within walking distance from the villa. We bought  fresh pasta and cooked up a simple but delicious dinner and had the dinner at the villa's front porch, by the water. To top it off, the villa comes with a courtesy vehicle for us to use. In our case, it was a spacious Toyota Estima, a seven seater people carrier. I understand the owner also has a big bad Landrover that he sometimes uses as the courtesy vehicle.

Complimentary tea and coffee.

Waterfront is right at our doorstep at Anzac villa.

Waiheke island is famous for two things. Wineries and beaches. Our Waiheke experience would not be complete without a visit at one of the wineries. Choosing winery to visit is not as easy as i thought. There are more than 30 different wineries on the island. I have been to Mudbrick winery some time ago and liked the mediterranean feel it has and its beautiful Lavender garden. But i thought i'd try somewhere else. So i did some googling and found Te Whau. We had lunch at Te Whau winery.  Te Whau is a smallish vineyeard but it's restauarnt is award winning and has been crowned the best Auckland rural fine dining restaurant. Sure enough, the food was absolutely amazing. So was the service. We started off with a basket of bread to share. The we had a main course each. We had pan fried salmon with king prawn and Vietnamese salad, eye fillet with potatoe tart, pan fried snapper fillet with tomaoe fondue and twice cooked duck.

We had an enjoyable and relaxing time on the island. I liked the villa we stayed in. One thing i will advice you not to do though is visiing a garden called Te Whau garden. It was a total waste of money and time if you ask me. It is basically a private residence with a big compound with partial landscape and partial wetland and flax bush. The garden has been advertised as a sculpture garden, but there were hardly any sculptures worth looking at. Entrance fee was $10 per adult. We only spent 20mins there and left disappointed. If you like garden, the are many much nicer gardens around Auckland, most of which are free for everyone to visit. I highly recommend the Auckland botanica garden in Manurewa (Hills rd).

For those of you planning to visit Waiheke, i recommend two things. One, stay at Anzac villa. Two, having lunch at Te Whau winery. Check out their websites. Here's the website address.

http://www.tewhau.co.nz/
http://www.anzacvilla.com

Don't like the past week

I haven't blogged for quite a few days. Not because i am lazy but because i have been as sick as a dog the past few days. There must a potent virus around that gives people the mother of all runny nose and nausea. Nausea and vomiting have never been my symptoms when i get flu. I absolutely hate the experience of waking up at night and retching in front of the toilet with nothing but gastric acid being expelled.

To top it off, the super bad rain last week has flooded my balcony and caused some unsightly water damage to one of my walls at home. Then came tropical cyclone Wilma, bringing lots of rain again. Everytime it rains my heart pounds 10 times faster. I worry a lot about my house as it doesn't seem to tolerate high rain falls well. Blame the poor building standard in New Zealand.

Then my precious boy racer car WRX got stolen yesterday morning. That was when cyclone Wilma visited our neighbourhood. I parked my car on street. My street is supposed to be a rather safe street. I have made a police report pronto but have not heard anything about my car so far. According to statistics only 30% of stolen cars in New Zealand get recovered eventually (wrecked or not). Now, I am car-less and mega pissed off.

My mood is much better today though. Although i still have to put up with my niggly cough, i did something cool today. I have done a 1/2 day photoshoot for my friend, Kait and Luke, lovely couple. I will need some time sorting out some editing and will make a full post on the shoot. So stay tuned and watch the space. Meanwhile, here are a few photos from the shoot, just to tease you for now.

A dog, a cat and a skater

The weather has been less than predictable the past few days. Summer is supposed to be dry and warm, but it has been raining on and off recently. This annoys me because it means i have to stay at home.

The rain has decided to stay away today. I spent a while trimming down my Lavender which has grown rapidly into a wild bush, rather unpleasant to sight. It looks heaps better now. I have kept most of the Lavender flowers i have removed and stuck them upright into two ceramic vases at my door step. Now when i enter my house i will be greeted with a light and somewhat "Tuscan" scent. These photos of the Lavender were taken with a Nikon 35mm f1.8. One of my other new purchase. I have decided my 50mm f1.8's focal length is a bit too long for most of my shots.

I went for a walk at the park (Onehunga lagoon). There is a skate park there. Most of the time it is quiet and unoccupied. I guess not many people know about its existence. But this time, there was a group of skateboarders training. I managed to take a few snaps of one of them in action with my new Nikon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR (except the wide angle shot of the skate park, which was taken with Tokina 11-16mm).

Onehunga lagoon is a good place to photograph dogs. There are always people walking their dogs. There are also a lot of birds in the park due to the wetland of the lagoon. There are two tide gates. When the tide is low, the waterbed get exposed and that is the feeding time for seabirds. There was a nice Labrador playing fetch with his owner. I got a few shots of him in the shallow water. These were also shot with the same 70-300mm lens.

On my way back home i saw my neighbours cat resting on his driveway. Out came my 70-300mm again. I love photographing cats. There are so much details to their face. The stripes, the long whiskers, the emerald or blue eyes can look amazing when you get your photo right. If the cat has decided not to run away from you when you approach, it will usually stay at the same spot calmly for a while for you to do your thing. Whereas a dog can be more curious and playful with strangers and tend to come up to you.

 

ATP world tour Heineken Open

So i was sitting on the couch at home, watching tele in the morning and found out Heineken open was on. I was feeling bored at home. I flick on my IPAD and did a quick search and found out tickets for the quarter finals were still available. I have never been to a tennis game before but have always wanted to. I came very close to going to Australian open three years ago but my holiday in Melbourne was short and it was a scorching 42 degrees in Melbourne, way too hot even for a Malaysian.

So i hopped into my good old WRX and raced down to ticketek counter and managed to get a good seat at Redwood grand stand of the ASB tennis center.  I have recently purchased a new Nikon lens which i was very keen to bring out for a test run. It is a Nikon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR. Before this i have been using the cheapskate 70-300mm f4-5.6G (No VR). This new lens with the VR is significantly heavier and a lot better built than the budget lens. I thought the results were pretty good. It was a very sunny day, so i must say i didn't really have to use much of the VR since i had my shuter speed beyond 1000 most of the time. One of these days i will try shooting the same object with both lens and show you the difference. Here are a few of my favourite shots from the tournament.

 

David Ferrer resting at the stand after winning his quarter final match.

He is a tall tall man.