Zealantics picture spectacular!!

Kia Ora and Hello!

Well, the time in New Zealand is winding down, as you might have guessed if you've been following the frequency of the posts.  In fact, there is only one more post to write...but that post is not this post.  This post is dedicated to showing some of my favourite pictures I've captured this year; the idea is to write a few words on each snap...but I might write a lot, or just a couple.  Inconsistency! 
And.....go!

This was the first picture I took upon arrival in New Zealand.  Looking at it brings me back to the strange mindset I was in at the time: no plans, nowhere to live, and no sleep for the last 30+ hours.

The first thing I did was charge off to the war memorial museum (much better than Te Papa in my opinion) to check out some Pasifika/Maori culture, which led me to this dimly-lit wooden house.  As we all padded around shoeless I remember thinking that they could carve BC's people under the table..but I guess it's just a stylistic difference.  The man meditating at the bottom of the pole seemed content.

Soon I was off to Paihia to see the storied Northland region, replete with tree ferns and mangrove swamps.  I made certain to hold the camera with two hands as I leaned off the boardwalk; it wouldn't have done to drop it less than two weeks into the trip.

Perhaps the most flattering picture of Upoko Manor that I ever took, taken from the time in which I didn't despise being there yet.  Much to the contrary: I was excited to be out of the transient lifestyle necessitated by hostel life.  Bedbugs, boxed wine, and precipitous weight loss were in the offing..the present was simple joy drawn from food stability and a room of my own to sleep in.

It seemed like this bush, directly outside my window at the Manor, never stopped flowering.  Despite this, I never really saw it being frequented by bees.  This was right before it got punishingly cold in 'the house that insulation forgot'.

This was the fun side of the great cold snap that came in not long after I moved into the Manor.  Apparently it was the first time it had snowed there in 40 years...note the still defiantly-flowering bush.

Wellington, on a good day, has a lot to recommend it.  It's when the wind became freshening, rather than unbearably grating.

Here we see a west coast Canadian and a Scot enjoying a sporting event in their natural habitat: the rain.  Canada was even in the lead for about 40 seconds in this game vs. the mighty All Blacks!

I tried on a number of occasions to capture Wellington's downtown at night from the top of Mt. Victoria...this was my favourite of those attempts.  The heads you see were there for the Guy Fawkes fireworks.

Here we see the home distillery set up by an American at Upoko Manor.  At that time there wasn't much to do if there wasn't a rugby game on to watch, so watching hooch get made passed for entertainment.  Well, unless Stenchomort showed up...then it was time to go hide.

I found myself walking down this road in blasting sunlight (with a 40+ pound bag!) while hitching to Nelson after first arriving on the south island.  It was the kind of day where the odd patch on the back of your hand that you didn't screen up would get an amusing sunburn.  It took a couple miles, but soon two English ladies spirited me to the next crossroads.

I think this is my favourite shot from my time on the Abel Tasman coast track.  This was taken a few hours into the walk, when the weather was unbelievable...at least compared to how it ended up - wind, rain, and incredulous looks from me at anyone who was starting the walk from the opposite direction.

I hitched down the entire west coast of the south island...and on review kind of liked this picture the most.  I mean glaciers, rivers, forests....we've all seen those.  But what the hell is going on in this sign? Beware of oddly square ruts if you're biking (it was in the middle of a flat parking lot)?  Watch out for flying mid-crash bikers?  The west coast could be mysterious.

This picture summed up the prevalent young male fashion in Alexandra, where I spent my Christmas having beers in a backyard pool and trying to get a mild sunburn for novelty's sake.  Suffice to say, I succeeded... unlike this guy's sartorial instincts when he went for this look.  Note the sheep shearing contest tanktop sponsored by one of the cheapo beer companies.

Not every snap was of happy-go-lucky material.  This is approximately what Christchurch looked like when I visited, a scant year or so AFTER the earthquake.  Maybe the Kiwis will break out some shovels or something one of these months...it was very weird.

Compare and contrast the smoking ruins of Christchurch with the ultra-opulent neighbourhood I moved into after a slight homeless departure back up in Auckland.  I think this was my favourite of all of the gates.

I spent an afternoon on the banks of the Turangi river waiting for a school group to raft their way down to where I was, and passed the time by making weird little rock towers with my one functional arm (my other arm being in a sling and necessitating nausea-inducing painkillers at the time).

I enlarged this photo so that you can see what I regarded as the height of a weird culture amongst Maori/Pasifika guys in New Zealand: wearing completely arbitrary NHL/NBA team gear.  Many were the Vancouver Grizzlies hats worn by guys with names like Mahi, Loketi, and Matasulueva...but this custom sleeveless jeanjacket with a huge Anaheim Ducks logo sewed onto the back was easily the best I saw.

I'll close with one of the last photos taken, while seeing the Flight of the Conchords at Auckland Town Hall.  The way the light was hitting his shiny square box hat..breathtaking.

Only one more entry to go, and then it's off to the airport for me.  Bigger and better things await!  Exotic adventures!  Less poverty!