Austrian visitors experiment with selfies in the Pacific

It is the blessing and curse of modern times!!
Technology has moved significant in the 30 years or so since I have been here. I can still remember that you had to go through a human operator if you wanted to place a call from here to anywhere else in the world - and now - well we have cellphones that can track you instantly anywhere in the world.  With that comes the images and goodness knows what-else in updates and news.  Having had a major earthquake in 2011 - we heard from someone in Canada how big our shake was - before we found out anything from our local news media!

 Like all things in our world - it has the potential to be good - or bad.
Selfies where initially great - but now or ever since Obama snapped himself with a blonde - it is a bit pasee - so - I was just a teeny weeny little surprised to see the following images - but not overly so - after all we are considering a boy who snapped 7 rolls of 36 images of ONE penguin coming in to sleep for the night :)  In any case - after a short discussion it was decided to head of and test the "warm" pacific waters.  Little did they know about the Kaikoura Trench which is about 10km deep or so and some 100 km north of here - and thus having a whole heap of cool temperatures - chilling everything down - including the wind.  Yes it was one of those days - yesterday 32 degrees - today 18 at best.   So bravely forward did they go -  something that had to be filmed for all posterity.  There is even a video somewhere on FB.  (hmm must try and see If I can upload that here - or at least link)
 One has to make sure one has the right "proof" of the experience!! Or was it the proof needed of the goosebumps the cold sea must have created?  Or was there a mini-jaws that nibbled on the toes?

 WAIT - you not getting out of this either.  Let see your toes - hmmm yeah - they are turning white from the cold!!! Not understood was how some locals could spend hours in this sea swimming / surfing etc.  Ha - they should - and most likely will experience the waters further south - as you know - the further south you go the closer you come to Antarctica (say no more)

Here is another famous selfie = wonder if it turned out ok????
I do remember a certain meremaid who was very brave and at least swam 10 meters or so sideways . . . . . . .  and still had goosebumps . . . .

No self-respecting model travels these days without the help of a paparazzo, and in this case there is no exception.  Still as you know it is all about location location location - speaking of which - after some discussion it was agreed that if you go straight out from here in this direction you would eventually hit Chile.  However you need to be careful with the angels - a couple of degrees further south and you miss it altogether and end up in much much colder waters

The Pier - all rebuild and still standing - the old soul gotr a bit of a shake up during the recent shakes - but it is still in good nick.  All recognized it as the location of my night photos taken last May!!

 OK- stand here smile like that - more like that - and  . . . .  ALL I want to know is in what travel magazine will this image be published in????  given the speed of modern technogadgets - I expect to see this on the front of NZ woman's weekly or NZ travel brochures ?  ??  ?  It was great to be tagging along and learn something about shooting on location.

This local bird was not impressed that she was not invited. I felt so sorry for her - so I asked her if she would pose just a bit - and it obliged nicely -
then got in a huff and left abruptly.
I recently learned that the black gulled seagull is very much a local bird, the distinguishing feather to all other gulls is its black beak.  Later on we saw a Petrel flying amongst the gulls - hunting for something to eat.  They are the second largest sea-flying bird after the Albatrosses - and great to see riding the wind - effortlessly !! made you want to have wings like that yourself.
Anyhow from there is was back to base for a breather and then back out to the royal garden party which turned out to be a lounge party . . . .

Have fun