New Zealand, July 2009: Only Go In Winter If Necessary...

Hey peeps!

Finally got off my ass and started looking at the latest trip photos. God, it seemed this NZ trip was such a blur. Then again, when you've been on the road for 3 weeks out of each month, everything seems to whiz right by.

I've been to New Zealand about 5 times, so if it seems like there aren't as many photos, well, that's because I've shot the crap out of the country the last couple times, so I only took photos of places that I'd never been to on this trip. It's also only the 2nd time that I've been down there during winter, and believe me, you do not want to go in winter. Yeah, sure the air fair is cheaper, but you also have to deal with cold wind, cold rain, and people that suffer from extreme bouts of seasonal moodiness. I mean, you'd think they thought the Earth was about to end since the gray skies look like a good day in Seattle. Man, they are so fickle.

In 20 years time, I've seen the city-folk gradually become more urban and closed off: they seem more guarded and stodgy ever since the increase in immigrant population in the early part of this century. Where once it was mostly whites and Maoris, now there's Indians, Iranians, Armenians, and host of other "ians" that now fill the populace at large. With so many new attitudes and ways of thinking, the Kiwis are trying to adapt, yet, they like to live at a slow pace in a supersonic world. Some things will never change.

Of course, when you meet people in the country and farther away from the city, they are still fairly pleasant, and love a bit of a chat when they can. Something about being in the Southern Hemisphere makes it appear that they are so far removed from the rest of the world that it's nice to find people that winter during, well, winter. That's one aspect of Kiwi life that I hope never changes. The last of the innocence of kindness that is slowly siphoned off from the rest of the world, but still preserved in a place where you'd least expect it.

Anyhow, here's the shots I took on this latest trip. Hope you like them... ;)