Sunday 22 July 2012

Wellington Trip!

For turning the big old 29 I decided I wanted to go away for the weekend.  Trying to drag hubby away from the business is a mission but I was determined and luckily Jetstar came to the party offering $39 fares to Wellington.  In hindsight you do get what you pay for - and with a 45 min delay to get down to Wellington and a 2 hour delay coming home I am seriously considering whether or not we fly with them again.  However the trip itself was great, Ash was amazingly behaved, slept brilliantly for both day and night sleeps (despite sharing a studio room with us!), and because we had no wireless at the hotel and had to have darkness for his sleeps we did NO work for three whole days which is a record since we took over this business at the start of the year.  We also slept a lot which for us is no longer the norm so we have come home feeling nice and refreshed from our mini break.

I love traveling around NZ and while I normally come back from places wishing we lived there or at least had a holiday home there, Wellington to me is definitely in the 'nice to visit' category but not 'live there' category.  Both hubby and I are country bumpkins (hence why we live in Helensville!) and while I appreciate city life to a degree I don't think I could do it full time.  However, Wellington did present lots of photo opportunities, and we were never bored in the time we were there.

So that said here are a few photos I thought I would share :)

Watching airplanes at Auckland Airport

Sculptures along the waterfront

Mr Cheese

Victoria University Law Centre I think?

The blue spaghetti

Waterfront by night

and again

Some steel balls (which Ash was obsessed with kicking!)

One very cool sculpture!

And again

By day 
Having snuggles after Ash's afternoon nap

Mr Cheese

Ash's Cable Car stamp (which he was very proud of)

Mandatory cable car trip (aka Toot Toot)

At the top

Sunset

Late afternoon walk

Playing hopscotch

Wellington by night

Spectacular Saturday morning

Waterfront

checking out the steel balls

Morning 

King of the Castle

Bryce trying out the slide

Followed shortly after by Mr A

At Foxglove (visiting Tricia)

Fun times

Checking out the ducks

A (rare) quiet moment

Checking out Thursday night traffic

Climbing through the hole

Sculptures again



Wednesday 18 July 2012

Daily Photo Challenge - Week 28

So I'm a little late this week - the weekend flew by not for any particular reason just because life is life!

Last week was a busy week - I had end of month reporting for our business (which sounds small but its actually a mission when you only have a couple of hours a night to dedicate to it), work was flat tack and the loan car continued to drive me mental on our hour long commutes each way.

Photography wise it felt like a snapshot week - the theme was The Journey but I didn't really stick to it except for a couple of shots.  Next week's photos will hopefully be better - we're off to Wellington for a few days to celebrate my last year in my 20's.

So enjoy the 'snapshots'!

Sea-horse

Tois Tois on the journey home

Our journey end - Auckland CBD

Last cuddles before bed

Boo!

You know you have a boy when they take a pair of pliers into the bath

Elephant watching

Sunday 8 July 2012

Daily Photo Challenge - Week 27

Well you know you're making progress into the year when you've actually got to check what week you're in!

This week has been a much better week on all accounts, I managed to score a loan car (which has no radio, air con doesn't work, is gutless and costing me an arm and a leg to run - BUT gets me from A to B and thats what counts right?), Mr A has started to sleep through the night again (THANK GOD), I'm finally getting over a stupid cold which is into its fourth week, and managed to find some cough medicine that I can take while pregnant.

Photography wise I'm still struggling to get the photos done when its dark at both ends of the day (really wish my camera went higher than 1600 ISO) BUT I've been a very lucky lady and made the biggest purchase for me in a very long time - an iPhone.  I've never paid for a phone before so I've always had mediocre technology, so this is a big step for me (thanks hubby for owning a business that gets us GREAT deals!).  I don't want to use it in place of my SLR as that would defeat the purpose of improving my photog skills, but I think it will definitely come in handy for spur of the moment shots where I don't have the SLR available.

So, all that said here are my photos for this week :)

25 + 3

Mr "Sad Face" (although very unconvincing!)

Goggles (again)

Life changer

Wet Dog

Muriwai 

Mr Fluff

Sunday 1 July 2012

Daily Photo Challenge - Week 26

Yay another (not so nice week on a personal front!) done and dusted :)

What I have learnt this week:


  • A toddler that doesn't sleep is worse than a newborn who doesn't.  Everything is a negotiation with this little guy but I think we're slowly winning the battle
  • Not having a car sux (see previous post)
  • I have taken lots of outside shots day shots this week with my kit set 18-55mm.  Working with a really high ISO works a treat when working with high shutter speeds, and you don't see the graininess that you see when taking night shots
  • In saying that though using this lens this week has highlighted to me just how crappy it is - seriously need an upgrade but need to win Lotto first!
Enjoy :)


Checking out the water fountain at the museum
Homeward bound

Like father like son

A result of not much sleep the night before - a cat nap at 8:30am

Waterfun

Zoo party at Makiri St
Orewa by night