Colour & Light Photoblog

Looks like the team at Havana Coffee Works are back on their game. After a bit of a dry spell on the creative labeling front (maybe some one switched them to decaf?!) this week’s delivery shows a bit of flair:

Flying Fox:

And Moko the Dolphin…

Still drawing the crowds.

Some interior shots of the car:

Ugh, I can’t believe I used that as a title. Anywho, lousy title, great car – 2004 Audi S4

The reserved styling is what appeals to me, it’s staunch without being vulgar and blingy like Evos and WRXs can be. Reserved maybe, but the twin exhausts do hint at something more:

And this is what they’re hinting at, the 4.2 L V8

So what’s the S4 bit mean?

Well the A4 is Audi’s compact sports sedan. The S4 is the sports version of the sports sedan (and as an aside, the RS4 is the sports version of the sports version of the sports sedan, and it’s waaay beyond my means to acquire one of those!). For this year (2004 B6 platform), the primary differences between the A4 and S4 are the 4.2L V8 (3.0 L V6 is the highest spec option available in an A4), uprated brakes, firmer suspension, quattro four wheel drive as standard.

Ok, back later, I’m going for another drive…

Another year, more candles.

Sexy as, nah, not the movie, me with the glasses:

Those are the dishwashable (they were wet when we picked them up), reusable, linearly polarised IMAX 3D ‘glasses’ the gave us. Distorted thin plastic wobbly lenses. This is not a good start to the experience… Had we gone to a smaller theater then we’d've been issued the more robust RealD 3D glasses – they use circular polarisation, and as digital camera buffs know the circular polarisers are more expensive, so for those lenses they went to the effort of spending a few more cents on better frames.

Anywho, movie was entertaining enough. Took a good 30 minutes or so to adapt to the viewing experience (the glasses, the not tilting had thing, shallow depth-of-field that was used and the general 3Dness). Then several times during the movie one of the cameras glitched for 1-2 seconds so the view from one eye went back, it’s more distracting than you’d expect. But overall, pretty cool.

Didn’t really get a lot of other photos over the weekend. Did spend a bit of time messing around on the balcony at night to get this one though:

More Pizza… A thin crust margarita pizza:

Certified nom.

It was a hot afternoon so we decided to opt for the safety of an air conditioned car and take a drive up the Rangitaiki river, visiting the two man made lakes (Lake Aniwhenua and Lake Matahina) and the associated hydro-electric dams.

First up is Matahina. Here’s how Google Earth sees the area, with our tracklog overlayed in blue:

Click the pic to go through to flickr where the image has notes on it that link to the photos I took in each spot. Or, just look below to see said photos

Using the face of the dam as a background:

Overview of the area:

And Shane scaring the birds:

Continuing upstream and we get to Lake Aniwhenua and Aniwhenua Falls:

Ummm, move right along, nothing to see here:

And so while Shane and I didn’t explore beyond the restricted access sign, Janette waited on a rock back at the car:

Not that she was completely innocent herself:

And just to round out the mix, here’s me trying to get the hang of the whole “Strobist” off-camera flash thing earlier in the day. The observant among you will have noticed the effect shoehorned into some of the earlier photos.

…and no, I could not strike a cheesier pose if I tried.

No, wait, hang on, nom nom nomminess was the affogato… Anywho, pizza photos:

Wanted coffee this afternoon, but it’s way to hot here. Brain slow, d’uh, affogato. Like most Italian food it’s so simple, but when done well with the finest ingredients it’s mindblowing. And today the rich smokey Cuban beans came together with the smooth sweet vanilla icecream to make what is technically termed om nom nomyness

Seriously, it was _that_ good. Espresso and icecream, who’d've thought.