St John's Creek - Wanaka

After photographing frogs and landscapes all day, we headed to St John's Creek for some evening, sunset shots.  I knew this was our second time to St John's Creek and it seems that I missed out blogging about the previous time we were there the night before this one.  So I'll have to go back another time and show you St John's Creek in another totally fun light!

Unfortunately the evening was fairly windy, which meant choppy water and no reflections.  Still - the light was beautiful giving lots of shadows and colours on the mountains.

Unfortunately, to get the right shutterspeed, meant the Lupins in the foreground were a bit out of focus due to the wind blowing..

 The shadows were long - this is Liz and I with our tripods...

And just as we were leaving the sunset finally hit the top of the mountains.  I had wanted so much more but that is all nature was going to give us tonight.  But I'll take what I can get!

Lindis Pass Landscapes

The dramatic Lindis Pass links the Mackenzie Basin with Central Otago. The actual pass crosses a saddle between the valleys of the Lindis and Ahuriri Rivers at an altitude of 971 metres above sea level. For many months of the year, you can expect to see snow in this mountainous area - often down to the roadside.  On our way down to Lake Hawea there was no snow, but the night before we were photographing the Lupins, it got cold and it snows...

Which made for some lovely photographs.  We stopped along various parts of the road to take photos. No one else did though - they just rushed past the amazing scenery in a hurry to get wherever they were going...

There weren't too many cars though, so I managed to get an image taken right in the middle of the highway!  No way I could do this anywhere else!

Another bus load of tourists rushing past and missing out on some of the best scenery that the South Island has to offer!

The potographers in action - we parked the car and walked over the tussock to get the best views...

And we stopped on the way back too because just photographing the area just once, wasn't enough!

There's something special about mountains, tussock grass, and snow that one cannot ignore if you have a camera in hand!

Lake Tekapo to Lake Hawea

We left Emily at Lake Tekapo while Liz and I jumped into the van for more photography.  We weren't too heartless though, we only drove for 10km then waited for her to catch up.  She was riding her bike in the MacKenzie country with lupins alongside the road and views to die for.  I think she had the better seat as she could savor the views, whereas we zipped along quite quickly until the first 10km stop came about. Out we jumped and this is what greeted us...

Golden Tussock grass, and mountains with a tiny bit of snow left on it.Landscapes that seemingly go on forever. Blue Skies. Did I mention windblown golden grasses...

I have no idea why but this next photo is my favourite photo of the whole day from Geraldine through to Hawea.  I think it's simple, balanced. The landscape is so South Island of New Zealand and that tiny white fluffy cloud yells 'Look at me, Look at me'!!  Is it only me that feels that way?

Lupins lead you into the landscape the the clouds lead you back out - excellent cloud formation..

Even without the Lupins the cloud formation makes the image.  I just love that golden Tussock grass.



Emily caught up with us, but we were so busy photographing that we didn't get one of her arriving.  She sneaked up on us so quickly (or we were just too engrossed in the landscape!!)

But I got one of her taking off into the clouds...

And another quick snap as we were driving past.  Didn't have my camera on a fast enough shutter speed though unfortunately.

We drove on another 10km and came down this hill and decided we needed to photograph this scene.  Out came the cameras again...

And when we were getting ready to take off again, Liz walked into the bike rack...  And bled all over the car!

But just like the ads on TV a sticking plaster made her smile again. And no, I didn't kiss it better!!

We drove just round the corner to the barn which was now bathed in that golden summer evening light. Beautiful.  Quite hard to get to though because of long grass, drains, fences etc...

But I did manage this shot..

This time we caught Emily as she came flying around the corner..

A quick wave of acknowledgement and she was off again, so we climbed back in the car and went for another 10km...

This was our next stop.  Beautiful Lupins and countryside..

And that gorgeous long white cloud again.  New Zealand is after all known as the Land of the Long Whtie Cloud which in Maori is Aotearoa. They very aptly named New Zealand in my opinion. We waited and waited for Emily to arrive on this stretch of road, but in the end decided to hop in the car and go a little further as we had finished photographing the scene and she still hadn't arrived.  We drove about 500 yards and wow - what a view.  Lake Pukaki.

We had to drive for a bit because there was no stopping for quite a way.  Shame really, the council should really put a stopping bay at the top of the hill as it is a magnificent view and no one can photograph it.

What do you think this cloud is trying to say.  To me it's telling me something but I can't quite make out the letters...

At the end of the lake is Mt Cook.  Once again it was under cloud.  I have never seen Mt Cook yet. I'm beginning to think it doesn't exist except in people's imagination!

You can see the bad weather closing in even here, and it was blowing a gale as you can see from the whitecaps on the lake.

Still beautiful though... And like Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki is that beautiful turquoise colour from the glaciers crushing the rock.  The sediment of this 'rock flour' gets suspended in the water, and when the sun shines, this is how it affects the colour of the water.

Emily Still hadn't come and an ambulance went past us, so Liz and I got a bit worried and went back to find her.  We passed her but once again couldn't turn round, so Emily kept going while we found a safe place to turn the van around then met her on this lake shore.

We took a few photos to celebrate her epic ride.  What a backdrop!

As it was getting quite late, we decided to forgo Lake Pukaki and head to the Lindis Pass to get the beautiful light and shadows as we drove through.  We would head back to Lake Pukaki in the weekend for more shots..

We made another stop just before the Lindis Pass to get the photo of the cloud formation again...

And of the White Cliffs at Omarama...   The light was just on them when we got there, but rapidly moved away so we had to be quick.

Getting closer to the Lindis pass, beautiful light, on the hills, fluffy clouds and lovely colours in the grasses...

And then we were in the Lindis Pass. The light, shape and colours very much remind of sand dunes images I've seen from Africa. This following image I think is my best. Love the light/shade, colour and textures...

And this one ain't too shabby either!!

After the Lindis Pass there were no more stops as the light faded quite rapidly.  We were very lucky to get what we did.  We drove on to Lake Hawea, unpacked the van then crashed.  It was a huge day but photographically very very successful.