NZ always on my mind - to be continued

NZ always on my mind - Part II - SignZ

Not officialy a sign, but still a nice shot of post boxes which are the most avaliable artistic canvas for most Kiwis. Some are for creative than those, just liked the composition.



some might not find this too interesting, but exotic weeds are a serious problem in a country only inhabitted for the last 600 years.



Obviously, someone's about to be disappointed...



yes yes, it is tacky but how often you are being warned not drive over a half-blind, non-flying national symbol? I say if they're stupid enough to walk on road when there are so few of them then maybe evolution hasn't been to kind to them...



The same goes for anyone who might need this sign... a good candidate for the Darwin awards

NZ always on my mind - Part I - CarZ

This blog (and us) needs a serious shake-up - so many people have told us that it's been neglected for too long (to my defense I did say it was going to happen a few months ago)... and what a better way to redeam ourselves than with the gorgeous secnery of NZ south Island?!

in one word, it was a blast - great outdoors, fantastic wheather, wide open roads... then again there were sand flies, crowds and all-booked camping sites...

but sticking to the good stuff, we had a pleasant companion in our road trip - Evan's Jaguar, or at it would like to be called - Evzjag. Evan is a very good friend of mine from the Bike Trip I took to the red heart of Australia. I think he and I bonded because we were the only ones in that trip that hated vegemite (i.e. a disgusting Aussie spread). there was also the matter of me telling someone who's old enough to be my dad that he's too stiff... but that's another story.

Evan came to pick us up from downtown Christchurch in the Jag and then left us with the keys. Now you might not know Evan but let me just tell you that he scared Liat with his tidiness... so think about driving his luxury car for two weeks...




By contrast, NZ is full of old cars which are a heaven for vintage design fans like us. Rich yet spatialy remote population, steep and long driving routes among other factors are all contributing to a superb selection of cool cars. like this mini-minor collection in distant campsite on the Fiordland region.



another sample, this time with the amazing Kepler range and Lake Manapouri on the horizon.



Kiwis are very creative people that also like to think of themselves as seriously committed "greenies" (yet, in another digression, their collective environmental record is shocking). Therefore, the possibilty of recycling an old truck into a travelling collective/commune/gypsy home is so appealing to many of them. This scene is quite common.



Evzjag with some Kiwis who are more environmentally-responsible than us next to the Kawarau Gorge (just above Nevis Bluff, probably the best accessible whitewater section on the planet... ah, if only I had my Kayak with me and I hadn't spent the last two years drinking beer and updating this blog...)



And this one's for the road...

WARNING: DO NOT TRY TO STOP ME.

I am going to:

1. Sleep diagonal.
2. Do nothing and not feel guilty about it.

3. Join a gypsy band & Romanian literature group.

Have a good one,

L (iat)

Self Portrait Aug 2007

Re-direct

Hi All,

For the next two weeks I'll be on a charity ride to the heart of the Aussie outback. If you want to read more about the purpose of this ride, follow my whereabouts or just see some (hopefully) stunning images, please follow the link below:

http://o-to-b.blogspot.com/

Hope that your ride will be smooth as mine,

Cheers, Sagi

Battle of the Bands

Melbourne is a great, affordable place to hear some live music. That is, if you know what you'll wear that night...




































For me it was an easier task...




















We were hoping to hear this band, Miso, who were missing their 'vocalist' so they put up an instrumental show instead. The things you could get away in Australia... But they were really good, preforming live Balkan-trip-hop on stage.

















































The next band was The Red Eyes, a Reggae/Dub ensemble which took themselves way too seriously for a band of skinny Aussie musicians, supporting a really charismatic lead singer... But they've rocked the house for a couple of hours.

Quirky Melbourne

quirky, adjective:
informal terms; strikingly unconventional

quirk'i·ly adv., quirk'i·ness n., quirk'y adj.

The Graffiti decorated Hosier Lane has now became so famous that it is almost a must-see destination which, sadly, causes it to slowly lose its appeal to some of the local street artists, thought it's still pretty cool.




















Some of them are moving elsewhere, leaving their marks in more unusual places, like this one on the Myer department store's wall.



































While the pink pigeons are an endorsed artwork , the snickers aren't - according to the local urban myths, they mark the places in which drugs are bought and sold. If true, then this dealership is pretty cocky, about 20m from town hall and on one of the busiest street corners in town!




















Also next to city hall, an anti-nuclear demonstration with some would-be angels dropping by for a visit. Like so many other things, it seemed more convincing in Berlin...








































Finally, another Melburnian op-shop, which just keep creating the coolest compositions out there and making every photographer's life too easy but delightful...

Lazy winter shots

A short post as winter has made us both pretty lazy, and we don't get out as much :( Not a big cars fan, yet I couldn't resist and took a few shots of this vintage car on Melbourne's Southbank precinct. It was parked next to an Aston-Martin/Rolls-Royce dealership, but you gotta appreciate the craftsmanship of this old Vauxhall Cresta, once an equally luxurious automobile in postwar Britain.

Another picture from the Fed Square complex, this time when a books fair was held inside its atrium. Seen better long exposures but a nice composition.

Kickstarting Winter

Winter officially starts in Australia only on the 21st of June, but the streets of Melbourne are already cold, (somewhat) wet and very windy. So we went somewhere where the weather is already cold, the Victorian High country, in hope of being better prepared for winter when it hits the city really bad.

We stayed with a couple of Friends (Coop and Heeyong) in a cabin next to Lake Eildon. Well, it was a lakeside cabin until Australia, and Victoria in particular, have been subjected to a 10 years drought. So now the 'lake' is only a massive piece of cracked, dried-up land, with only 5% of its original water volume. The lakebed has recorded all of its transformations over the years, from an old farmland that was flooded by a dam in the 50's, to a popular recreational site during the past few decades and now to a gloomy no-man's land. A surreal, cool scenery that, in its own way, tells you a sad and disturbing story.































On the following day we went to the Mt. Buller ski resort, but instead of heading up the ski slopes we went the other way, to Mt. Stirling which is the cross-country alternative to Mt. Buller's bourgeois experience. It was a unanimous decision...
















A beautiful Snow Gum, the only Eucalypti specie that grows in this altitude. Unlike other alpine regions on the planet, the tree line is not that far from the top due to the relatively low altitude. in fact, there's an old snow gum near the peak itself.







































No, this isn't a lone Zapatista we've met at the top, nor is a mountaineer on top of K2 - that's Liat on the 1749m peak of Mt. Stirling. At least you don't have to hear her complaints about the cold in the picture...




















Me and Coop, the 'expedition leaders'. The sun, that was absent from most of our ascent, came out just in time to light up the amazing views of the Victorian Alps.




















Heeyong descends from the mountain - how is this picture as a postcard from down under?

Both girls were full of joy after we stepped down from the peak. Luckily for them, we didn't save the before pictures...