Auckland's Sky Tower (as seen from Waitakere Gardens)

I told you in a post quite some time ago, that a new project of mine would be to photograph the Sky Tower in downtown Auckland. And to do so from our Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village, located 7.52 miles from the Tower, in Henderson, a western suburb of Auckland.  

It then occurred to me that showcasing this iconic Auckland landmark might be a fitting 500th post for my blog. I can't believe that I've reached such a milestone. But I have.  And some of you have been reading it and commenting right from the beginning.  Thank you so much. At the time of publishing this post, I've had 49,822 views of my blog and 1,020 comments.  Wow. 

This is the view from our balcony on the 2nd floor toward the Sky Tower. Can you spot it? 

How about now?

See, I told you it was there. 

When the conditions are just right, and the trees are swaying away from the Tower, I can get a glimpse of it's lights at night.  

Because of our limited view from our balcony, I started climbing higher in our building to get above the trees.  These next shots were taken from a third floor stairwell and lounge.      

But, I needed to get higher yet. 

I crossed the Sky Bridge between buildings. (The next two shots were taken at night because I like the color of the lights.) 

And took the glass-backed elevator (lift) up to the top floor of The Vines. 

This is the view of the Sky Tower from the 5th floor of the Vines.

Still hard to see.  7.52 miles is a long way.

Zooming in again and it starts to appear.  

Ah, good. I can finally show you most of it, although I'm still not high enough to see the base.  

This is what it looks like from the base. 

Here then are some pictures showing as much of it as I can see.  

This picture was taken during the warmest part of the day. It's probably in the 70's. 

Look what happens when I zoom in even closer.  Heat distortion is warping our view, especially of the observation and restaurant levels. I like this shot because the Sky Tower distortion seems to mimic the clouds behind it. (I think of this picture as The Sky Tower in Bizarro World)  

Here's one that I took in the evening, just before dusk started siphoning off the light. 

Here is the associated close up.  Notice that with the cooler temperatures, the distortion is much reduced. (It astounds me that I can get this close from 7 1/2 miles away.)

At night they turn on the Sky Tower's lights and it becomes something special... 

The rest of this post will show you the Sky Tower arrayed in all its finery.  

But first, let me give you a little perspective before we go on. The sports field is almost 2 miles away and the Tower about 7 1/2 miles.  

 So, let's look at some colors.

Is this a flight coming in or a U.F.O. (U.A.P.)?  

I've showed you two of the same color here because there is a helicopter flying by...

The incoming flight and the helicopter shots were taken on different nights. 

One night it was  blinking.  

I have many more pictures...  

You can imagine no doubt, how many combinations of light must be possible, given the colors and sections available on the tower but I don't think I'll ever get a chance to see or to record them all. This is plenty for now.  

I'll close out this picture-laden post with a few 'behind-the-scenes' shots...

I'm in the 5th-floor lounge where I took the color shots of the Tower.   

This is a picture of the entire lounge area.  (A gloomy day when I took this shot) 

My picture-taking post (the chair) is shown with the orange dot. 

  

I've had a wonderful time preparing this for all of you. I've lost count of how many trips I made up to my observation post. 

What's more, I have discovered the perfect place to watch the Sky Tower fireworks display on  New Year's. I had better come early, there will no doubt be a crowd.              

And now, to work on my 501st post.     -djf