I spent most of my first day with Ronald getting suited up for his big day as one of his groomsmen.

Cafe Mossimo Cappuccino

The man of the week, Ron:

Ronald the groom

and did a couple shots of their rings for fun:

Ring in a flower

Not entirely sure how hectic this week will be; I doubt it will be anything like the past couple of weeks: Sydney Salsa Congress, Haiti Dance Fund Raiser drama, moving house plus an engagement photo-shoot almost every other weekend.

Speaking of engagement shoots, I shot the very lovely couple, David and Lisa at the Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens last weekend before their engagement party and what fun that was. Coincidentally, just a couple weeks before, I had the oppurtunity to shoot Ronald and Melissa’s engagement there too. Here is a sneak peak at one of David and Lisa’s photos =D

David and Lisa

Mt Ruapehu

See that red circle on the photo? I skied down from there(top of the mountain) Pretty proud of myself for succesfully clearing a couple “black diamond” runs on my first try skiing.

*The ski track difficulty is broken down by(from easiest to hardest):-
Green>Blue>Black>Double Black

All I can think about now is skiing, Im already pondering on 2010 trip. Any ideas?

Over the next 2 weeks, my blog will be running on autopilot with the occasional checkup from moi with a total blackout for this week.

Photos from the airport after several attempts of trying and a great landscape photo of our plane.

Enjoy life while we rock out the mountains!

I will be accompanied by Ben and we will be spending 12 days there, 7 out of which will be spent up at Mount Ruapehu skiing! Itll be my first time skiing too so Im pretty stoked. Our “tour guide” will be none other than one of my best friends, Ronald whos wedding Im attending in January(see my previous post about being a groomsmen) and will meet his fiance for the first time over the week.

Back to skiing, Ive been watching the weather reports eagerly hoping the weather works out for us and learnt from Haemogee how to read an ISOBAR map and forecasted the week Im there to start off abit wet but eventually turning to clear skies for the rest of the week!

When we are back down from the mountains, we have a couple of things loosely planned over the 3-4 days with Celeste, another one of my childhood friends!

Heres our list:-
-Waitamo Caves:  we havent decided which adventure we will take, any suggestions?
-Underwater World: We will check this place out when we are back in Auckland, there were some really good reviews about it. *cross fingers* and hope I can bring my camera in there(probably no flash photography)
-Sky City:  Drinks at the swanky Sky City absorbing the magnificent views.
-Kingslander: As a Salsa dancer, how can I go to a city and not go dancing! We will be meeting up with Hamish, a temporary Brisbanite who lives in New Zealand to dance.

Those are the main big attractions that we are aiming for. Now, I have a dillema, I believe we have 2 free days that have nothing planned for them and we want to visit some wineries and maybe some other tourist spots, maybe a coastal area of sorts. I would REALLY REALLY appreciate it if you could share your Auckland, New Zealand experiences  with famous wineries and maybe, the hidden treasures of Auckland.

ps – Oh, I forgot to mention, I will bring you back a surprise gift of sorts from New Zealand for your thoughts on interesting spots around Auckland =D

pps – Im not kidding about the gift, I will personally mail it to you if youre not located in Brisbane!