ALIVE AND AWAKE - SO FAR

I arrived safely at Auckland's airport at 7:10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 30, 2009. On the flight was Referee Rich, a class act that does a lot of MAC basketball games. Team Angola was also on the plane.

Luckily, I was able to get my bags and get out of through customs quickly because both Angola and Khazakstan (sp?) has students waiting to sing, cheer and perform the Haka for their arrival. I had the opportunity to meet a number of amazing locals and even got a ride to the Tournament hotel from the FIBA people. That was great stuff.

I grabbed a hostel room for the night, set up a four or five day trip around the north island and took a brief walk about the harbour.

I thought I would be able to just grab a cheap phone and a pay as you go card while I was here - similar to what all the Canadians did in Scotland but, all the phones are minimum $199 NZ. That is quite expensive. Nike shoes are $250-300 NZ. Everything at the CCC Canterbury shop was a minimum of $60 NZ.

Crappy weather, light drizzle and kinda chilly. Shorts weather.

Anyways, it is time for bed and an early wake up call.

New Zealand and Australia for a month....

As I mentioned in my last post, more photo opportunities would be presenting themselves in the Summer and sure enough, I will be travelling to the Southern Hemisphere to relax and enjoy myself in New Zealand and Australia for the month of July.

While I am there, I will have access to the FIBA U-19 Men's Basketball Championships in Auckland and potentially the 2009 World BMX Championships in Adelaide, Australia.

My flight leaves on Sunday, June 28, 2009. I will be returning to Canada on Wednesday, July 30, 2009.

I hope to document and share as much of the trip as possible with you as I travel and photograph my way down under on this blog.

You can feel free to pass along information, ideas, feedback or even request some photos that I have taken or you would like to have taken.

Just send me a message at hallmp13@yahoo.ca.

The next photo adventure...

I was hoping to be taking photos at the Hamilton Avalanche photo tonight but, got lazy and decided not to take the camera out in the rain.

The completion of classes at school has provided me with a few extra minutes to complete www.mphcentral.com. Recent updates have included sports photos and a photo from Trieste, Italy that I found in my photo library.

An increased opportunity to take photos should be present in July and I look forward to updating more frequently.

Please check back often for some photo updates.........

MPH

4 teaching days left in 2009........

Once again, I have neglected to post anything on my blog for the past month.

It has been a fun month, full of hard work, triumph and disappointment (sometimes we need to look back at what we have accomplished...).

Anyways, I'm almost done teaching for the school year, which should lead to more photos, which will hopefully lead to more posts and more opportunities to further my professional development as a photographer.

My first project is to complete the 'Sports' section of www.mphcentral.com.

Until next time........