Celebrate Good Times... C'Mon!

News from afar...

Yesterday was freakin' tops, for several reasons.

Firstly, it was great to return to the 'kaiks, happiness always seems to flow through me when I make it through Arthurs Pass, over the Otira viaduct, and start cruising out into the westland vegetation of tall trees, ferns and coursing rivers. It is always nice to come home after a week away, especially a 6 day working week. I do feel this is quite homely now ~ El shall be joining me here in only a couple of months, my parents have visited, I have my own place to relax in, and I know the area and the people in it. It's good to be back.

Secondly, and more importantly, I got a text when I arrived back from the oft-spoken-about Elinor. She received her results for her Interpreting Course (one of the main reasons she stayed in Oz this year) and SHE PASSED! Hurrah!!!!!! So rather excitedly we managed a bit of a chat whilst she was at work.. just so very happy that all her hard work this year has paid off and she'll have a lot more flexibility getting jobs over here too!

Thirdly, a few little parcels were waiting for me from a few Trade Me (NZ's eBay) auctions I'd won. The most exciting of which was my new iPod and speaker system!! After losing / suffered a disappearance of my most prized old iPod video, I have been suffering from mp3 rage.. I tried one or two others but they simply are inferior. Sorry to every other mp3 manufacturer, but I just don't think they're anywhere near iPod at the moment. So, yes, I bought myself a 6th generation iPod Classic, and got a good speaker dock thrown in too. Bargain.

Fourthly, VERY happy to receive back my passport complete with several full page NZ immigration labels stating I'm a resident, I'm welcome to 'remain in NZ indefinitely'. Thank you Te Ratonga Manene!! The good thing with this is that I'm now able to take up studies over here as I mentioned in a previous post ~ so the diploma in ecotourism is the first stop, closely followed by a short course in Maori language, and hopefully a crash course in Maori culture.

It called for the opening of some bubbly, and a toast to the North West where most of you are in comparison to me.

Finally in this babble, I should add that the photography course is now coming along well; 2/3 of the way through now. The portaiture came out ok marks-wise, not quite up to scratch but I would say that's about the weakest of my areas. I was then able to enter my next assignment which was partly to do with copying styles of your favourite photographers ~ I chose an image by Stewart Nimmo (a West Coast photographer) and here's the result;

Flowering Harakeke on the West Coast

The next assignment went in shortly after this one was marked (at a better result) which was a very helpful but terribly unkind module. It was all about equipment, focusing on what camera, lenses, computers, peripherals & software you thought you would need in the coming years to get to the professional level you aimed for.

I have nailed down that I'm not interested in giving up my full-time job, so really I only aspire to being a freelance amateur-pro photographer focusing mainly on nature, landscape & travel photography. So whilst I don't intend to trade in my trusty Sony A200 dSLR in the forseeable future, I had to research all the exciting equipment which I keep telling myself 'NO' to.. sheesh it's tempting stuff. Still I think I'm pretty sorted at the moment, and thankfully my photography wont require expensive lighting rigs, studios, and I don't aspire to the client-approval land of instant jpegs flying across the highspeed internet connections around the world. Interesting assignment though!

Enough babble, be good people.

Link to updated Facebook HOME album
Link to Facebook Cragieburn Snow album
Link to Facebook Coast album

SIGN IT DAGNAMIT

Copenhagen... sure it's a lovely place for a stroll, a nice brekafast + a romantic weekend away. BUT I sincerely hope the bigwigs who head for the UN Climate Change Conference in December don't have that on their mind.

I, and many many millions around the world would like the leaders of their nations to sign a deal. Not just a loose, not too binding, "tomorrow we'll change" kinda deal, but a comprehensive action plan to lock nations into reducing our global carbon emissions. It's the only way.

Check out 350.org

It's all coming together

The last couple of weeks have been a pretty good culmination of some hard work over the last year or two.

I'm happy to say that my permanent residency came through, enabling me to stay in New Zealand for the forseeable future. I managed to get it all approved on the day I would have had to stop working on my working-holiday visa, so I didn't cause any waves at work and didn't leave myself out of pocket through a working hiatus.

Following that, I enjoyed El's last short hop to New Zealand over in Christchurch. She joined me for the weekend, and the next time she comes to NZ, she'll be moving here to live with me. Very exciting.

Not long after my visa was approved, I had my yearly review with work, which by all accounts went pretty well. It was really nice to get some recognition for what I've done for CVNZ this year (other than seeing the project site grow and scores of volunteers completing the program happy and smiling and saying they want to come back), as I feel I've worked pretty hard for them, going a fair way further than my job necessarily entails. It looks like there may be a positive future career for me with Conservation Volunteers, and it's important to me to feel I am developing and learning new things in the role the whole time ~ stagnancy is something which I don't tolerate well.

I've also made the next step in signing up for an Ecotourism Diploma with the local polytecnic. This is part of the developmental goals for work, and a long-time personal interest in travel and environmentalism. The modules include; Ecosystems of Aotearoa, Ecotourim Guiding, Interpreting Cultural Tourism, Sustainability, Ecotourism Research Project, Outdoor Kayaking. I'm hoping to start the Ecosystems module in the coming month before Christmas. Could be an interesting move for my future career, I would hope it could offer a good balance to my business/analytical abilities as well as keeping a strong connection to conservation, travel and environmental education.

So it's an exciting time for me at the moment, and only 4 weeks to Christmas holidays in Australia!!

Opening my eyes

It's always good to get started on something new, and in this case for me, it's Portrait Photography.

It's really not something I've ever been very good at, I've always enjoyed Travel, Landscape or Nature photography in the main, but the latest assignment of my photography course set me the following;

Submit a photo of a man and a photo of a woman using natural light and artificial light and explain why you lit them the way you did and reveal the Vanity Index you were using. Be creative and use your imagination. If you don’t have lighting gear improvise with table lamps or whatever you have at hand for the artificial light. Do your best…I will critique them and I will be ruthless.

So here's my results in photo form (I wont bore you with my explanations);

'We will not die quietly'

From the 350.org Team;

Dear Friends,

Since October 24, when you helped lead thousands of events around the world calling for climate action, we've seen new political momentum behind the climate solutions that science demands. After meeting with dozens of delegates during the last round of UN climate negotations in Barcelona, I can tell you first-hand that your local climate leadership is making a real difference--and helping clear the political space for national leaders to take ever-bolder stances on the climate crisis.

Earlier this week, President Nasheed--the leader of a low-lying nation faced with the very real threat of imminent extinction due to rising seas--delivered a powerful speech at the opening of the "Climate Vulnerable Forum." In his speech, he calls for a survival pact in a plea so eloquent that you need to read it for yourself and sign the survival pact today.

The "Climate Vulnerable Forum" included many of the nations on the very front lines of the climate crisis, nations that are grappling with the impacts of the climate crisis here and now.

The focus of President Nasheed's speech was to bring attention to the dire consequences of ending the Copenhagen Climate Talks this December with a weak or non-binding agreement.

I'll let President Nasheed's words speak for themselves:

We are gathered here because we are the most vulnerable group of nations to climate change.

Some might prefer us to suffer in silence but today we have decided to speak...we will not die quietly.

Members of the G8 rich countries have pledged to halt temperature rises to two degrees Celsius. Yet they have refused to commit to the carbon targets, which would deliver even this modest goal.

At two degrees we would lose the coral reefs. At two degrees we would melt Greenland. At two degrees my country would not survive.

As a president I cannot accept this. As a person I cannot accept this.

I refuse to believe that it is too late, and that we cannot do any about it. Copenhagen is our date with destiny. Let us go there with a better plan.

Nasheed called on all nations to push for carbon neutrality in order to ensure the survival of his country and all the most vulnerable people around the world:

After all, it is not carbon we want, but development. It is not coal we want, but electricity. It is not oil we want, but transport. Low-carbon technologies now exist, to deliver all the goods and services we need. Let us make the goal of using them.

Finally, he made the distinction between what might be considered a good deal in Copenhagen, and one that would ensure the end of his people:

At the moment every country arrives at the negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible. They never make commitments, unless someone else does first.

This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide.

We don't want a global suicide pact. And we will not sign a global suicide pact, in Copenhagen or anywhere. So today, I invite some of the most vulnerable nations in the world, to join a global survival pact instead.

These are bold words, bolder than most people understand.

Here's the backstory: President Nasheed and other leaders of some of the world's most vulnerable countries are already being pressured to back down from their commitments to strong action. For example, when African countries stood up at the UN Climate Talks in Barcelona last week and demanded rich countries commit to strong climate targets, European capitol's placed immense pressure on them to back off, so much so that the chair of the African negotiating bloc was forced to leave the negotiations.

Leaders like Nasheed need our support. Your actions on October 24th opened the door for bolder leadership. And the deliveries of photos from Oct 24 events to over 110 countries in Barcelona (and cities all over the world) are helping turn grassroots action into political momentum.

Now, with just a month to go before Copenhagen, we must stand together. All of us, from presidents and politicians to scientists and citizens, must seize this moment and take this movement for survival to the next level.

Please join us.

Onwards,

Teresa Niño and the 350.org Team

Facebook Link


What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a "people powered movement" that is made of of people like you in every corner of the planet.

Nature's Poetry

I’m lucky as I get to spend time in some beautiful locations of New Zealand, and this week we’re up in the mountains of Canterbury’s High Country ~ Cragieburn to be precise.

As we’re up around 800m the precipitation has turned to snow, and snow is for me, one of nature’s most amazing events.

Looking out the window I can see hundreds of soft fluffy flakes falling from my view, obviously there are millions of snow flakes falling in this area right now, and to think that each and everyone of those is unique is mind boggling. I have written at length of how the mystery and beauties of nature intrigue, teach and capture me and my imagination, but snow fall is just one of those amazing things that are taken for granted.

When seen en masse, snow fall is spectacular but tracing one flake’s journey from source to eventual destination is quite incredible. Evaporating from one of the great expanses of water, the vapour rises and collects on dust particles in the atmosphere to form clouds. It’s moved by the forceful winds that brush over our lands, and across to where we sit and watch the clouds begin to unleash their burden. Sometimes it is possible to single out an individual snowflake high up in the sky and watch it falling, its course interrupted by small gusts of wind, eventually making contact with one kind of surface or another. In this case, the snow is falling largely onto the trees and forest floor, changing form almost instantly to become a small rivulet running down the leaves of the beech trees, or moistening the leafy forest floor. Watching snow slowly build its soft blanket along the ground and in the trees is one of my joys, for little we do as humans, whether it be great works of art, poetry, or literature, can match such a natural occurrence.

The way the world is slightly muffled when it is snowing is fantastic, it allows quiet contemplation, enjoyment of the close up instead of the bigger picture. I think that’s why it suits so well for curling up with a good book, the crackle of a wood fire (or hum of a heat pump these days), and soft strands of music floating through the room. Instead of an inconvenience, I always look on snow as an opportunity ~ it can transform our immediate environment so drastically.

Having this kind of awareness of the world around me is something that has only increased with so much time spent out in the wilderness areas of the lands I travel to. I could entertain myself for all my time left on this world with the ‘little things’ that this world has given to us, for free, with no strings attached, which we can wonder at. I can only hope we’re able to protect this for future generations to enjoy, to wonder about the same questions as we do, and to help make sense of their place in the global ecosystem we inhabit. We are but creatures within a greater system, not superior to other animals or the environment around us, I hope this realisation reaches more people before we lose more vast natural areas and species in this world which we seem hell-bent on 'mastering'.

Inch by Inch: JUBILANT!

Can't quite tell you how excited I am today.

Today I have become an honorary Kiwi! Well, in the sense I am allowed to reside here for the long-term future at least, as not only a temporary work visa was granted today, but also my Permanent Residency under the Skilled Migrant scheme.

I've done it.. secured my forseeable future in the upside down, green pastured, sheep ridden lands of New Zealand!!

I am a very happy man.