Sometimes, images are needed for an upcoming Festival production before it actually happens - so I'm off to the rehearsal hall to capture the stage it's at currently, in this case for the programme people will get on the night of the show.

But it's always nice to get some images that aren't so much of the production itself, more the atmosphere in the room - even if they aren't part of the brief for that day, they make up part of the history of the event, the Festival, and the arts in New Zealand as a whole.

In this case, it was the new New Zealand opera for 2008, The Trial Of The Cannibal Dog - featuring some of the country's best singing talent.

Meanwhile, back at the Festival Office...preparations continued!