twenty sixteen

Hey guys, what's up? Since I've been checking in so much this week (ha! Well, comparatively), I thought I'd catch you up on what's been happening round these parts in the beginning of 2016. By all accounts it's been a shitty year so far in world news, and we find the joy we can in the everyday.

At the start of the year we ventured to Kelly Tarlton's aquarium...

We made pals with manta ray, found Nemo and needless to say - had a blast. Before long we went to see the French spectacle Carabosse, Garden of Fire at the Auckland Domain....

This little girl in white cotton dress danced her heart away to these ethereal musicians playing a mix of French techno and Maori taonga

The Auckland Museum made sure she put on a real show that night.

That brings us to around April. Next up - families on both sides visit, Argentinian and English...

the final frontier

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Couldn't resist putting the nerdy post title. If you have a spare 5 minutes then watch this wonderfully calming time-lapse video, the electrical storms and aurora borealis captured are amazing! The film is made up of photographs using a special low-light 4K camera, taken by the crew on the International Space Station between August and October 2011. Edited by Michael Koenig.

touch wood

Genius. A small wooden ball plays the whole of Bach's Cantata 147 by rolling down a xylophone track created and placed in a forest, using only the force of gravity. This smart piece of advertising created by Morihiro Harano of Drill Inc. is for the new NTT Domoco Touch Wood SH-08C phone.

via Colossal

the castellers

Images by Vilanova i la Geltru

Wow, I never heard of this annual event in Tarragona, Spain. Teams of Castellers compete to create highly-organized human towers - it's not just height that rules, but a set of complex construction rules are followed. Read more about it here.

japan

It seems there's no end to the natural disasters lately. Last night I was saddened by images of the tsunami that followed the 8.4 - 9 earthquake North East of Tokyo. Let's keep sending our thoughts and best hopes to those who have been affected, and pray there's no more devastation. You can help by texting REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 (US).

art for heart

Everyone has heard about the devastating floods in Queensland Australia, and there are some great initiatives out there to help raise funds to repair the damaged lives of those affected. The Queensland Flood Appeal is auctioning off artworks here, and the takings will go some way in helping recover. If you're feeling generous or would like to help out, then place a bid and maybe win a piece of art while you're at it. Artist and illustrator Catherine Campbell is taking part, I found out about this over at her blog.

wanderlust

Ashley of Hither and Thither posted this rad image of Cappadocia in Turkey, taken by Mr and Mrs Globe Trot who are photographers travelling the world on their 6 month honeymoon (congrats!). Why have I never heard about this place? Cappadocia looks utterly gorgeous and Dali-esque, I think it just made it onto my travel lust list along with Istanbul, Morocco, Mexico, Cuba, Japan (again), Andalusia and, well.. it keeps growing! Imagining where we're going to go on our own honeymoon is definitely one of the most exciting parts of wedding planning (pffft you couldn't say we've been doing much of that yet! A bit tied up logistically right now, long story).

let it snow

Like, woah.

via even*cleveland

Hey, it's Christmas! Let's come in from the cold and enjoy a tingly dose of ear magic in the form of a digital Christmas album. Play it here free!

found via rockstar diaries

read this

vic posted this amazing quote from author of Where The Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak. As Catherine Campbell said in her original post about it, "this is the most brilliant thing I have read all week".

salty stories

Some beautiful imagery in the biographical tale below. I can't sum it up any better than the website I found this on, so I've also quoted their explanation.

Relentless Energy presents Short Stories, a challenge to recognised core sports and music filmmakers…

The first Short Stories film, by renowned photographer and bodyboarder Mickey Smith, explores his world as a true waterman – both as an athlete and artist, and is called The Dark Side of The Lens.
“Originally I planned for the film to be more anonymous, rather than biographical, an all encompassing piece, to represent the photographers keeping the surfing machine afloat”, explains Smith.

Something that offers insight into what it takes to grind out a living as a water-based photographer in the surfing industry: a short experimental glimpse at a life lived in the shadow of obsessive photographic pursuits.”

“It also gave me the chance to ask myself a few questions, like, if you’re always observing and documenting what you see and experience, are you ever truly present? Questions like that where I could step back think and then see what the answers were”, Smith says.