Ready to Head "Down Under"

I'm all packed and ready to travel.  My flight from Phoenix to San Francisco leaves at 4:52pm on Wednesday, April 1.  Then its on to Auckland, NZ arriving there after a 13 hour flight at 6:15am April 3 (10:15am April 2 to you people in Phoenix).  I will pick up a rental car at the airport and then drive about 161km (sorry, 100 miles) on the wrong side of a winding road to Coromandel Town to spend 2 nites at the Lion's Den hostel   http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/34349-Lion%27s-Den  . More later.

Day of the Spanish Horse

On Saturday, March 21, I went to Estralla Mountain Park where they had the event "Day of the Spanish Horse".  The weather was warm and sunny and there were great photo opportunities around.  There were flamenco dancers, "bull"fighters, dancing horses, lassooing, costumed riders, and our friend Melissa was there as Zorro.  There was just a $6 park admission for the car and the rest of the event was free.  The crowd was just the right size to get a good atmosphere and to allow room to take pictures.  The horses were magnificent. From the computer terminal of Bill Graczyk

Trip to Chihuly Exhibit at Desert Botanical Gardens

My wife and I visited the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix on Tuesday, March 17, 2009.  The Chihuly glass exhibit was there and I really wanted to see it.  After several attempts, I was able to get reservations over the internet.
 
We arrived around 3pm.  I wanted to get there late afternoon and early evening because that's the best time for lighting on all the exhibits.  The gardens close at 8pm.  The exhibit was terrific.  The setting sun and the artificial lighting really lit up the glass displays.  The shapes of the glasswork also blended in nicely with the desert landscaping.  Some of the desert flowers were blooming but few of the cactus were in full bloom.
 
We stayed until around 7pm.  When the lighting came on, there were a lot of people around the exhibits and it was more difficult to get good photos.  I've included several of the pictures here.  All in all it was a very nice trip.

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Monument Valley, Arizona

Taken on a photo trip in November, 2008

Trip to NZ and Australia

During the month of April 2009, I will be taking a trip to the Coromandel and Northland areas of New Zealand and the Sydney area in Australia.  I'll be renting a car for most of the time and will be staying at the local hostels.  I plan to do a lot of sightseeing and taking a lot of photos and just casually roaming around these beautiful areas.  I spent a month in NZ last April and it left me wanting to see more.   I am planning to take my laptop and will try to keep a daily log and post them to this blog along with some photos.  If anyone has any suggestions of things to see in this area, please post them here.  I have my copies of "Lonely Planet" as a guide for now.