Tag Archives: sky tower

Auckland In Rainbow Colours

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Over the past week several locations in Auckland City lit up in rainbow colours for the Pride Festival 2014. I figured there wouldn’t be any better timing than the very last day of the Sochi Winter Olympics to present you some of my photo impressions. Nod if you agree. Cheers!

Auckland War Memorial Museum
Auckland War Memorial Museum
Car light trails along the Auckland War Memorial Museum
The Gantry, Auckland Silo Park
The Gantry, Auckland Silo Park
The Gantry, Auckland Silo Park
Sky Tower in rainbow colours

While it was easier to capture the Auckland War Memorial Museum and The Gantry at Silo Par, the Sky Tower turned out to be a challenge. The landmark kept changing colours twice per second; exposing longer than 1 second would have made the top of the tower white. Thanks to an aperture of f1.8 and a nearly noiseless ISO 1000 I captured Roy G. Biv for a collage of seven frames.

I quite enjoyed this colour parade. Congrats New Zealand for being broad-minded!

If you like this post you might also like Auckland Sky Tower Colours…

2014: The Year Of The Horse – Auckland Celebrates

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It was that time of the year again! Auckland lit up in red and gold while commemorating Chinese New Year in a spectacular way over the past 4 days.

Chinese Lantern Festival, Auckland, New Zealand, 2014
Chinese Lantern Festival, Auckland, New Zealand, 2014
Chinese Lantern Festival, Auckland, New Zealand, 2014
Chinese New Year, Auckland, New Zealand, 2014

The first Auckland Lantern Festival was held in 2000. Over the past 14 years, many new lanterns have been added and each year more and more non-Asian visitors are eagerly anticipating the event on the first full moon of the lunar year.

For the Year of the Horse festival last weekend, Albert Park was ablaze with light from 800 lanterns. Tens of thousands of visitors gathered and celebrated the festival that has been described as the “largest expression of friendship” between Auckland and the Chinese community“, which by the way makes almost 10% of the city’s inhabitants (according to the 2013 Census results more than 112,000 Aucklanders are of Chinese heritage).

What to expect from the Year of the Horse?

Apparently it’s going to be wild! The horse is an extremely energetic zodiac sign. Even if you weren’t born in a year of the horse you can profit; we’ve been told that if we plan big changes in our lives, 2014 is the year to turn plans into reality.

Dang! We are curious now :-)

If you like this article you will also like 2013: The Year Of The Snake – Auckland Celebrates…

Auckland Sky Tower Colours

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18 colours of the Auckland Sky Tower

auckland-sky-tower-colours Auckland’s Sky Tower in 2012 & 2013 (please click on the image to see the single frames larger)

At special times throughout the year Auckland’s Sky Tower lights up certain colours to show support for a range of activities. In the past the city’s lanky landmark got illuminated in various colours for the following reasons:

  • To mark a public holiday or special anniversary
  • To help promote the cause of a charity
  • To mark a special national event
  • For a particular SkyCity event

While I haven’t spent every single day of 2012 and 2013 in Auckland I think I still managed to capture the majority of lighting schemes during the past two years. Time to recap since we celebrate a small anniversary today: We moved to Auckland two years ago to the day.

  • White: Default
  • Blue and White: SkyCity Breakers winning the ANBL Championship in 2012 and 2013
  • White and Blue: Auckland colours (?)
  • White and Turquoise: No idea (help appreciated)
  • Gold: Celebrating Valerie Adams’ gold medal at the 2012 Olympics
  • Blue, White, Red: Bastille Day & Independence Day
  • Blue: Auckland Blues Rugby & Prostat Cancer Awareness Month; and in 2013: New Royal Baby Boy born
  • Turquoise: Auckland Adidas Marathon 2013
  • Green: St. Patrick’s Day; and in 2013: Xbox One launch in NZ
  • Orange: Auckland Festival & 40 Hour Famine
  • Red and Green: Christmas
  • Red and Gold: Chinese New Year
  • Pink: Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  • Red: ANZAC Day & Red Cross Appeal Week; in 2012: One year anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake
  • Red and Blue: Matariki
  • Rainbow: Gay marriage becomes legal in New Zealand in 2013
  • Off with Pink Top: I actually think something went wrong here and it was supposed to be completely pink
  • Blue, White, Red, Yellow: Supporting the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013

Do you happen to know more about the colour schemes for which I couldn’t find an official statement (basically the white/blue and turquoise/white arrangements)? If yes, I would love to hear from you.

Below, I included one photo of the Sky Tower during sunset to show you the tower without any lighting; the way it appears once a year during Earth Hour.

If you like this post you might also like Auckland Skyline: Photo Locations

skytowercolor_day

The Sky Tower during sunset – frankly, no artificial colours needed here…