Wairau Lagoons

Back in March shortly after I moved into my new house, the Marlborough Camera Club had a field trip to the Wairau Lagoons. I slept in too late and missed the meeting time!! So I flagged it. It was early March and still very hot and dry, and when I saw some of the photos of the dried cracked riverbeds that the other members had taken, I decided I'd go up anyway.

Unfortunately, by the time I did get there, we had had a day or two of heavy rain. However, I still got some interesting shots....

Here's the entrance.  On the left are the Marlborough Poo Ponds, but once you get past those, the whole of the area opens up before you...

Quite a few board walks over the swampy bits. I was hoping for more bird life, but unfortunately there was very little that day. I probably needed to get there a bit earlier in the morning, or later in the day!

Here's looking back to where we were walking from. Guillemette and Brian were with me, Guillemette was walking on the boardwalk, and Brian is lagging behind somewhere!

As I said before, the whole area opens up to this huge wide expanse that is absolutely gorgeous. The paths were easy to walk on, and as one can see, not too many hills!!!

When taking photos, I like to take them in different positions to get a different perspective, not just the same photo from the standing up position. The more you move around your camera, the more chance you get of having a winning shot. This one is far from a winning shot, but one I like all the same!

I love the colour of the grasses, and the way the wind sweeps them into different positions reflecting the light. The blue sky in contrast really sets it off as well.

The Wither Hills make a perfect backdrop in this setting.

Even though the rains had filled the creeks, evidence of the dry cracked empty riverbed w as still there...

The water was pretty clear and unpolluted as you can see from this close up the river. I am determined to go back this coming summer when it's bone dry!

This is as far as we got, simply because my ankle still very sore and I couldn't walk long distances on it. How I hope this surgery has worked so I can start walking again soon! As you can see there are two ways to the shipwreck. I've heard now that the best time to go is late afternoon, so that's what I'll be doing in January!

On our way back to the car, I didn't find a dried up riverbed, but I did find a dried up pond.

I took a close up image of it - almost looks like dried up cow dung!

Finally, I stitched 6 images together to make one huge panormama of this area. Those hills far in the distance on the left is the North Island, to the Wither Hills on the right, and the path we were on in the middle. This gives you an idea of the expanse we experienced on our walk.

If you click on the image, it will come up on your screen in a bigger view to get more of an idea.

I'm definitely going back!