#1001 ... Hello Mr Dragon

A Chinese dragon on the waterfront during the dragon boat festival ... scary but friendly

#1000 ... Water jumpers

Today at the wharf in front of Te Papa and Circa Theatre ... every one in the group had jumped bar one ... airborne right ... it's been a magic summer day ... Dragon Boat weekend today the corporates ... tomorrow the schools. Street theatre for the Fringe Festival and the International Arts Festival ... its all happening ... but jumping into the water is FREE.

#999 ... The 3 Little Sausages

Enjoying the free barbecue sausages, mustard sauce and fresh bread ... Midland Park, centre of Wellington

#998 ... Work & Play

An outside office on the waterfront ... connected, bubbled and oblivious to the world around me.
Te Papa forecourt in the background with the mirrored blobs and people, walking, skating, biking and enjoying the day.

#997 ... Ambos on Bikes

The St John's Ambulance show real pragmatic innovation fo r delivering service to local events ... the Home grown Music Festival ... easy and cheap to get around quickly ... and a smile as well

#996 ... Legs Eleven

Calico Jacks Boutique in Ghuznee Street ... an interesting blend of colourful stockings & street reflections.
Photo taken by Rumi Shivaz ... thanks mate

#995 ... Sticky Words

All part of the "inspiring words" festival in Wellington. This cube was covered in magnetic words for everyone to have a go at creating some "inspiring words" ... we all have creative bits inside us ... we just have to let them escape and flourish.

#994 ... Home Grown

Heading to the Home Grown Music event on the Wellington waterfront ... 5 stages all NZ bands and music ... all on an awesome day

#993 ... Scorching Bay

Scorching Bay ... great place for summer barbecue or picnic plus a salty swim.
Surfarama Cafe ... turquoise building in centre of photo (previously Chocolate Fish cafe)

#992 ... Everything is Yellow

Rodney Solialo, Hurricanes No. 8, being interviewed at Midland Park, Conrad Smith in the background,

The Phoenix and Hurricanes squads at Midland Park for a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity on Friday afternoon from 1pm-2pm. A free BBQ lunch was be provided to fans and tickets to both big games will be available for purchase at the event. Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast was there to show the city’s support for what promises to be one of the most exciting sporting weekends ever in Wellington!

The Wellington Phoenix football team, will make history this Sunday as they play in their first ever home semi final. With a huge Wellington crowd behind them, the Phoenix will be looking to push on to another final!

Phoenix and Hurricanes united for huge weekend
The day before the Phoenix play the Perth Glory, the Hurricanes take on the Western Force at Westpac Stadium in their first home game of the Rebel Sport Super 14 at 7:35pm.
It’s a unique double-header weekend and the two great sporting codes have united to encourage Wellington to get out and support both teams this weekend.

#991 ... Liquid Summer

Warm but wet today ... take the bus and keep dry. Rain on steamy windows. Bubbled out, passing the Old Bank Arcade.

#990 ... Fire Sky

The sky this morning ... only lasted for a few minutes but very impressive ... the last few mornings have been like this but I haven't been quick enough to catch the colour. Looking east from our driveway in Ngaio.

#989 ... Peddling for Care Kids

A lot of peddling BUT going nowhere (distance wise that is) ... but really going along way to helping others ... through "careKids". Cycling for a cause outside the Ibis Hotel in Featherston Street.
Check out the careKids Adventure cycling races

#988 ... Stripped

Stripping the Strip
The old Liks strip joint in Vivian Street ... next to the Victoria School of Architecture ! ... a nice play on concepts ... "stripping the strip joint"

#987 ... The Taste of Yellow

The Yellow Pages has been running a promotion campaign to find someone to track down the unique flavour of Yellow chocolate ... and then arrange to get it made. This was the MISSION
See the web site here,
... and this is a photo of the final result.

CHOC TASTING NOTES: a mid yellow colour, with a smooth white chocolate texture on the tongue with hints of pineapple, after tones of banana, mid flavours of nearly ripe mango and maybe a hint of golden kiwifruit. Will not benefit from cellaring. Made to be eaten NOW

# 986 ... en foot

An amazing pair of shoes on Featherston Street ... Wellington ... a superb finishing statement for red jeans

#985 ... Bubbles

The bubble making man at the Lagoon ... he has succeeded in making them 30m+ long ... the bubbles look magic when floating on the surface of the water.

#984 ... Morning Welcome

Morning sky as viewed from our driveway looking east towards Khandallah ... muted tones with a golden edge

#983 ... Sevens Montage Two

More amazing creativity from the Sevens weekend

#982 ... A Zen Moment

A quiet serene spot behind the City Art Gallery. Rusted steel reinforcing mesh provides a rich earthy aged background.

#981 ... Seven's Montage

#980 ... 50s Film star

This is Mandy who has a real passion for films and movie stars from the 50s ... the ink work was exceptionally well done with a range of grey scales and highlights of red. The tattoos had been done locally in the Hutt Valley ... mandy was delightful to chat to and like us was enjoying a cool beer on a sunny summer Wellington day

#979 ... Running of the Bulls

Simple yet effective when "en masse" A cast of 100s for the Running of the Bulls ... here at Courtenay Place ... on the way (maybe) to the Stadium to watch the rugby ... YEAH RIGHT

#978 ... Plastic Soldiers

wow ... what a day ... the weather, the city, the people ... I took so many photos I have to work on a montage so you can see the diversity of costumes for the Sevens weekend.

However if you are someone of my age you will no doubt remember the khaki green plastic soldiers we played with as kids. Well these guys have interpreted that as their uniform for the Wellington Sevens weekend. As is often the case ... simple execution of a concept produces an awesome result. WELL DONE SERGENT

#977 ... KUKRI

Since 1999 Team Kukri has shown what real teamwork 'can do'. They have
over 6 million, yes that's million, design options online... you can choose from 36 different fabrics in 22 different colours and over the past 10 years they have really got carried away with ourselves and now supply team wear for over 50 different sports.

Kukri are the official clothing suppliers for the Wellington Sevens Rugby tournament. A couple of years back, it had been proposed to bring the Cheerleaders from the Hong Kong Sevens tournament over to perform at the Wellington Sevens. Well these delightful young ladies said "why do that", we can get a group of great dancers together to be the KUKRI Hip-Hop Dance Team. So here they are (from Hamilton) down in the greatest little capital in the South Pacific ... to perform tomorrow and Saturday.

They were clearly enjoying the awesome weather and soaking up, as well as, contributing to the atmosphere of our event capital. Show off your dance moves and have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping to chat.

#976 ... We do it like this !

Wellington is getting set for the Sevens Rugby competition on Friday and Saturday ... and this is the Papua New Guinea team going over tactics after their practice at Raroa Park yesterday evening ... and they are becoming competitive ... losing to the masters of the game, Fiji by 10 points in a recent game.

#975 ... Keep on truckin'

While getting photos of the race goers all dressed up in their glad rags ... these truckies yelled out "what about us!" ... so here they are and they looked more comfortable and happier that those dressed up in clothes that were not really suited to a hot day.

#974 ... A Purple Patch

These two dapper gentlemen dominated the Wellington Cup carnival's fashion contest. This photo was taken outside the Wellington Railway Station while they waited for the shuttle bus to Trentham Racecourse ... and YES they looked well kitted out to the last minute detail. Note the two tone gloves and the patent leather, chisel toe, buckle shoes.

In what is believed to be a first, a gay couple – cocktail bar owners Malcolm and Scott Kennedy-Vaughan – were crowned Couple of the Carnival on Saturday. They also believe they were New Zealand's first married gay couple, and now Scott, and Malcolm are the best dressed pair at the Wellington races.

The couple of 18 years – who once owned the Pound Bar on Dixon St and now have S and M's, a Cuba St cocktail bar – were crowned Wellington Cup Couple of the Carnival on Saturday. They wore matching suits with purple accessories to pip other couples. The pair are no strangers to winning competitions. In 2005 they won a radio contest against five other gay couples to win a Hawaiian wedding. That was about two years before civil unions were permitted in New Zealand. One of the big benefits of winning Saturday's competition was showing other younger gay people it was okay to be openly gay, Scott said.