A Quick Post

I'm on Instagram now, look for RyanTL85, I'll eventually get around to uploading some of my favourite images from my travels, so follow me!

Shameless plug out the way, I got a phone call today from a guy offering an interview for the evening call centre job, it's only about 16 hours a week but at $20 an hour it will be a much needed boost to my income. But what about touristy stuff? Well, I might go up the Sky Tower (seeing as I've taken over9000 photos of it) and I picked up a leaflet from one of my customers today and they do...

Yep, swimming with dolphins. I'm going to ask about it (and maybe try for a discount, because those sandwiches are that good I should get a discount for delivering them to their office) tomorrow when I do my rounds, but I won't commit unless I succeed in gaining a second job, so wish me luck, or don't, it doesn't really make a difference.

Told you it was a quick post. I'm done now so here's the kind of thing I've already uploaded to Instagram, see you there...

Black Seeds

Saturday night I saw a band, a New Zealand reggae band called Black Seeds. The gig had something to do with Auckland's University, which is why it was cheap and I learned about it from two students. The band were pretty good, considering it's not the usual thing I'd listen to...

The Black Seeds, increasing weed sales across NZ

All pretty chilled and they recorded it for some reason which meant they (apparently) played everything properly and didn't do anything different, according to Tom, the guy from work who told me about the gig.

The Black Seeds were supporting another Kiwi artist called Kimbra, who was the girl singing in that song were she's somebody that some Australian guy used to know. Honestly, we didn't expect much and we were not disappointed. Sure she could sing but the songs just seemed a bit 'hipster', you know the kind of thing that certain people like because they think it's something new and different that 'you don't understand' but actually it's just the same thing Kate Bush did. I still videoed a bit because, well, Youtube hits make me feel popular...

Now tell me she almost sort of just like Kate Bush.

We left 3 songs in to go for a few beers or whatever because the tickets were cheap and we saw the band we wanted to see. We went to K'Road to a cafe that had beer and those shishka things (apple was selected but mint was delivered). With minty fresh breath we then went on to some other bar on K'road, a really dark corridor with a bar and a few seats,

and a painting of a horse, of course.

Then on to the University bar, which was closed. It's been a while since I've been on a Uni campus, but that familiar feeling of student election was in the air,

and on every inch of wall space.

So after we found a new nominee,

I went back to the hostel and the other two went back to their flat. I did wonder why a university bar would be closed, then I remembered all the students were at the Vectra Arena for that gig.

Earlier in the day I looked at a potential room in a potential house that I might potentially live in, but I'm not sure it's worth moving out of the hostel yet because the part time sandwich job isn't giving me much money to play with after rent and food. The low wages has lead me to apply for a couple of part time evening jobs, one at Star City and one at some sort of call centre, but I haven't heard back from either yet.

And that's the news. I'm still working at the sandwich place, because like everywhere I've worked, I'm the best thing to happen to that company and it would only fail without me.
Peace and love, y'all!

The traffic cones didn't stand a chance.

Rangitoto Island

Today I visited the volcanic island of Rangitoto, about 45 minutes on a ferry away from Downtown Auckland. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but that kind of thing doesn't bother me. First up, a bit of history...

and a photo

Rangitoto erupted from the sea around 600 years ago and is the youngest island in the Hauraki Gulf and is also the largest volcano in the Auckland volcanic field. The summit is 260 meters above sea level, but thanks to the people who made the track it only takes an hour to get to the top from the wharf... But I didn't take that road.

I took the long way round, mostly because I wanted to see as much as possible after spending $27 dollars on a return ticket. Also, the last ferry was at 4pm, so I had about 6 hours to see almost everything.

Unfortunately it isn't the best time of year to visit the island as the native trees flower in the spring/summer and the largest black back gull colony in New Zealand breed from October to January. Luckily there is plenty more to see, like...

The rare Kidney Fern (I think)

Vast swathes of 'not much'

Baches. People used to live on the edge of the island in these little cottages.

Sights from Lord of the Rings (Probably)

And a volcano.

Of course there are other things to look out for. The fan tail birds zip across the path ways, performing some quick manoeuvres that they surely do to annoy photographers.

OOH! THERE'S ONE!

Through the mangroves I came to Mckenzie Bay and Beacon Lighthouse

Then I took the road east towards the centre of the island and to the summit of the volcano. The path up the side of the volcano is actually a board walk, so it's really easy.

And here is the crater...

The volcano has been 'dormant' for a long time, so no Mount Doom scenes here.

And in the middle there, is the lighthouse.

And here is the view of Auckland city with the harbour bridge to the right.

So that was that, but volcanoes leave more than just craters. I headed back down a bit to look at some lave caves.

There was also this old building on the way down (possibly military?)

 I reached the caves, there were some Germans dithering near one of the entrances and once they had decided to go off I made my descent...

Although dark (obviously) the first cave was easy to walk through, so I went to the second cave, which was even easier, but still pretty dark.

Pictured: Dark

A nice little detour through the lava caves and I decided to make the hour or so walk back to the wharf before I ran out of time.

After a bit of time waiting for the ferry (and taking pictures of gulls and sparrows) I was on my way back to the city, tired but happy I finally did something touristy. And that was my day, a bit of a brief summary but I did have fun, even if my legs ache a bit now. I might go back and look at Motutapu island, which is pretty much joined with Rangitoto, but I'll do that another day. Peace out y'all!

4 Star Day Dream...

Yes, that title is a line from Pink Floyd's 'Money', which is something I now have a bit of. My rebate came through, I got paid for my sandwich job (sort of, I still haven't got my tax number) and now I can afford to replace my knackered shoes with some kick ass new boots, that were only $60, because I know $2000 doesn't last very long.

Work is going well, the boss seems pleased with my work ethic, which is basically the same as Scarface's

"And then the women can say 'hello' to my lil' friend!"

Along with money I also got a free DVD from a friendly old couple who were looking for the university, I don't know where that is but they gave me a DVD anyway.

I highly doubt it's 'the hottest movie' on the internet.

 I don't have a DVD player, so I chucked the DVD in the bin, partly because I couldn't watch it but mostly because the back of it didn't have a blurb, just a list of 'authors' who said it was interesting. If it had a picture of Jason Statham walking away from an explosion then I'd be interested, but it just felt like a 'religious leaflet' or a physical equivalent of the kind of thing people share on Facebook.

Just like all the other genocidal dictators.

It's all good in the hood at the moment. I was so relieved to have finally got some money in my account that I splashed out on the bargain boots, a hair cut and a trip to Auckland's Art Gallery!

I'm cool like that.

The thing with many art galleries is the buildings themselves are works of art, also you have to walk past a lot of crap before you see something you like. Here's some pics.

These guys are big metal fans...

Here is a 'Spaced' reference.

I like that last one, it's like a Maori version of Tron or something.

Now I have money I can really enjoy Auckland, so much so that I intend to scale a volcano tomorrow. But living with no money is a good experience as you spend your time looking for things to do that are free. EG. Yesterday I realised I could sell some of my better photos as stock images, well, submit them to be evaluated by some guy to see if I have the ability to take photos to sell as stock images.

The above pictures all answer 'yes' to the question 'would you buy these photos... if you were stupid enough?'

With this new idea, that I have had in my head for the past 9 months, fresh in my mind I took to the streets looking for interesting vantage points and shots to prove I can take pictures that would look cool on a canvas print, or whatever people do with stock images.
After 2 hours I got these...

 No they're not the same, one has a bird in it.

OK, so I wasn't that successful. But I only need 10 pictures for evaluation and I have plenty more than that, here's some others.

We'll see how that turns out, but for now I'm doing nothing. And I'll be doing nothing until tomorrow morning when I visit Rangitoto island (weather pending).