a few shots

Been pretty busy, but here are some photos I've taken recently.

We had a holiday in Singapore. In the Little India area are several gold markets packed even at this time of night (10pm) with Indian people negotiating for shows of wealth. There are no prices on any of the pieces, just the weight of the piece - its all by negotiation. I didn't know if I'd be allowed to take a photograph with all that gold, but thought someone would start yelling if they didn't like it.

Also in Little India are very large sari shops. I found these mannequins somehow an eerie way of displaying the expensive outfits

 Singapore is a shrine to shopping and consumerism, some of it taken to 'unusual' extremes such as this sheep in a christmas display

 I've also been playing around with taking photographs out of helicopters:

We went chasing rare plants in the Ahukawakawa Swamp nestled between Mt Taranaki and the eroded volcanic cone of the Pouakai Range

On the way back we passed through Patea, the home of my favourite memorial: the concrete Aotea waka (canoe) and concrete Maori paddlers. I remember this from long car trips when we were kids. It didn't mean we were close to anywhere, but it was something to look at.

Some people might remember the Patea Maori Club and Delvinius Prime's hit song Poi E