2011 Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony

In case you hadn't heard, the 2011 Rugby World Cup is being held here in New Zealand.  New Zealand has been preparing for this event for the last few years and with great excitement and anticipation the event opened on Friday.  It has been great to see people preparing for the games with flags of the various nations on buildings, cars and even people's faces.  Part of the opening ceremony was an impressive firework display from barges in the harbour and a number of buildings in the city.  I headed up Mount Hobson to get a few shots along with a few hundred other people!  The atmosphere was great.  People just keen to have a good time.  Very friendly and great fun.  I just hope this continues throughout the event.

With the fireworks over we enjoyed searchlights streaking light through the smoke from the hundreds and thousands of fireworks that made up the display.  Quite amazing how much money is spent on the fireworks and how quickly the show is over.  Anyway, VERY impressive and I think everyone enjoyed the show.

The match on the opening night?  New Zealand vs Tonga.  The winners?  New Zealand's All Blacks of course ;-)

Happy New Year!!

2011 already!

Happy New Year to you from Auckland New Zealand.

Shots in this post are from last night's wonderful firework display on the Waitamata Harbour.

If you click on an image you'll get an enlarged view :-)

Plot night

Plot night or Bonfire night, just a name for the 5th of November celebrations.  I always felt a tad sorry for Guy or Guido Fawkes as he wasn't the 'leader' of the group that planned to blow up parliament.  Anyway, those events were over 500 years ago!  These days, even in New Zealand, where I suspect hardly anybody knows anything about the plans of Robert Catesby to blow up Britain's Parliament, we buy fireworks and set them off on the 5th of November each year.

We're no different to all the other Kiwis.  Off to the shops to buy a selection of explosives with which the celebrate the failure of the gunpowder plot, waiting for it to go dark and then battling with the matches in the breeze as we attempt to light the fuse paper.

This year, however, we bought more 'sparklers' than actual fireworks and got the children to draw patterns in the sky as they danced and lept around the back yard.  I put the camera on a tripod, used a wide angle lens, small aperture and set the shutter to bulb.  We had a wonderful time.  They were exhausted and ready for bed when we'd finished and I got some reasonable shots.  They tried writing their names and other words, but these didn't come out as well as the stars.

So there you go ... heaps for fun, exercise for the kids and probably the cheapest 'fireworks' in the shop!