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  • Down there is Queen Street

    Queen Street Above

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, New Zealand being a country of the Commonwealth, Aucklands main road in the CBD is Queen Street. During the week, a hustling and bustling street, lined with various retail, food and entertainment shops. Its also the main street for any wider Auckland parades, graduation walks, and protest walks. An early development in Aucklands young town years (1840), a stream ran down it. This was soon directed via a small canal, and then buried underground by the 1870’s. The lower half of Queen Street was also reclaimed from the sea (reclaimed being an always off term to me as it always make me feel like we are taking back something lost rather than never had).

    Looking down upon it from up in the Sky Tower, one gets a sense of how small things are from above, We saw a number of gulls flying up near us at 300m, catching the wind currents. You can also see how cold Queen Street can get with the surrounding shadows of the buildings.

    Tomorrow, keeping ‘up high’ we will venture our view out a little more, past the goings on of the CBD.

  • Looking to the South

    SSE Museum

    Shot approximately SSE, todays view has us looking down upon the Auckland Museum, and Mount Wellington in the background (as well as two aeroplanes if you can spot them).

    As a child, from the North Shore, the museum was in clear view. A monster of a building, whilst still visible, is dwarfed by the cityscape. Built from the early 1920’s and opened in 1929, this neoclassical monument has undergone a number of upgrades over the years, but still holds true to the essential design. Holding a vast array of museum pieces (many in the underground storage archive not available to the public), its well worth a visit for anyone stopping by Auckland.

    A war memorial museum, it is also the biggest venue for our annual ANZAC dawn ceremony.

  • Aucklands Spaghetti Junction

    Spagetti Junction

    All big cities seem to have their own Spaghetti Junction. A confusing series of motorway on/off ramps, twisted and turned like a bowl of spaghetti. Auckland is no different.

    Shot again from the Sky Tower, looking down upon the city, I focused towards part of our spag bowl. Technically titled the ‘Central Motorway Junction’, Im not sure I have ever met anyone who has called it such. Without reference, my understanding is our spaghetti junction was built in the 1960’s to assist traffic flows and congestion in the central meeting point (CBD). When being built in the 70’s, it seems as there was some cost cutting, as I recall a number of pilons sticking up, going nowhere. I the 2000’s it was finally completed (or extended depending on ones position of opinion).

    Unfortunately for Auckland, and I am sure other areas of the world, a plan for traffic and traffic flow in the 60’s had no way of being able to accurately project 50 years into the future. The spaghetti may be well sign posted, but its still a muddle, and best to keep clear of any time around rush hour traffic…unless you want to more slowly and admire the engineering that is.

    And another shot from above tomorrow!

  • City South

    City Southern

    Following on from yesterdays image, over the next week I have a few shots to share from a trip up the Sky Tower. Featured in a number of photos I have shown, and being about 15 years since I last went up, I thought it was about time to venture up and capture some of the surrounding landscape. Sitting at 328m tall, its without doubt the place to go for a view of virtually all of Auckland City.

    We had some tickets at the ready a few weeks back, but with winter on its way (technically here now we are in June) we had to wait for a clear sunny day.

    Armed with my Sony,once there I found it was so bright, I really could have done with a ND filter – but then again, I try not to cart around a massive bag of kit with me, unless its an actual trip out to just take photos.

    Todays shot is looking ~South over the city. In the distance we can see One Tree Hill (left) and Mt Eden (right). When up this high, nothing looks particularly hilly – even though Auckland is anything but flat!

    Another shot from above tomorrow!

  • Autumn Between the Shadows

    A sliver of light

    A shot from above.

    Looking down I snapped the autumn tree, its colours beaming out from both the shadows and grey city surrounding.

    Shot on the Nex 5N with the 55-210mm lens. In Gimp I desaturated the blue tones, giving the city buildings the mono tone.

    More shots from above tomorrow.