The Marlborough Sounds & Bluebridge

The Marlborough Sounds and Bluebridge – Buy 

The peace and tranquillity of the Marlborough Sounds. It’s home to over 200 species of fish and three different types of sea mammals. It has several predator free islands to protect endangered species like the kakapo, tuatara, and giant weta and since 1962 it has been the main route for inter-island ferries travelling between Picton and Wellington.

The Glenorchy Pier

The Glenorchy Pier – Buy 

A few years back now, I stayed a few nights in the tiny South Island town of Glenorchy. One morning, waking up early I snuck out for a walk as dawn was starting to break over the lake and the surrounding mountains. I made my way down to the pier at the lakefront as heavy clouds started to clear over the mountains and sunlight started to hit the hills high above the lake. If there’s one thing that is guaranteed to make you feel insignificant, it’s watching the earth wake-up while being encircled in mountain peaks when you’re the only one around.

The Tucker Box

Here’s a quick selection of images I’ve taken at the beach over the years.

Daily Photo

The Tucker Box– Buy 

It occurred to me the other day that I might have drifted off topic a bit on my blog. My intention had been to photograph, write and blog my way around my own backyard and beyond, by chronicling my trips through words and pictures. To get back on track, I  began to make plans for all the trips I could take in the upcoming weeks and months but it became too big and complicated. Then, a voice in my head said, ‘heck John, go for a walk on the Wharf!’ So that’s what I did.

The Matrix Is Fixed

Towards Chatto Creek & Springvale Road – Buy 

The Matrix is fixed. You might have noticed there’s been a bug over the last few days as posts appear and then vanish or don’t seem to appear at all. It turns out there was a problem with an update in one of the widgets and a few other bugs that had crept into the system. Essentially my blog had a cold! The good news is that it’s all fixed and normal business has resumed. 

Spring On The Leith

Spring on the Leith – Buy 

I’m not completely sure how my thought process brought me to this point on the Leith but I believe it went something like this…. I started by wandering around the University of Otago looking for signs of spring. This took me down Castle Street (which was littered in glass and had a strange flight club style gathering happening outside one flat) where I came across the Leith River at the Botanical Gardens. Following the Leith which was rather full due to the recent heavy rain, I became interested in the graffiti and the surrounding colours from the gardens.

Tracks Heading West At Pukerangi

Tracks Heading West – Buy 

It took me three visits to this spot to get the image I wanted. It’s a decent journey from Dunedin and not a spot I could quickly detour to when the time seemed right. To get the timing right it took a bit of planning. On the first two occasions I came home, only to realise I wasn’t happy with the composition which was rather annoying. There’s also a wonderful metaphor that comes with railway tracks and railway stations that seem to be a growing theme for me.

Railway Station At Sutton

Railway Station at Sutton – Buy 

The Sutton railway station was once a busy wee place as locals came and went from the Strath Taieri area to Dunedin. These days, still visible inside the small, disused station, etched into the timber are the names of locals that date back nearly to the turn of the century. Some of them include the initials of soldiers from the area who served in the First World War, among them are the initials of A.C Peat.

At the age of 21, Arthur Charles Peat left Sutton in late 1914 and was enlisted for ‘The Great War’ as a member of the Otago Infantry Battalion on the 13th December 1914. On board the vessel the HMS Tahiti, his journey from Sutton took him firstly to Egypt where in early April he wrote to his brother Jack. In his letter he wrote about spending three days on the Red Sea before getting sight of the Suez canal. He wrote about saluting other ships as they passed, about buying fruit off the locals and disembarking to a train to head through the canal. He went on to write about meeting some of his mates once they were in camp and how they went into Cairo to have a look at the sites, commenting that he had only seen the pyramids from a distance. Wanting to ensure his letter went out on that day’s mail, he ended by promising to write all the news and tell all about the sights next time. 

Arthur and the Otago Infantry Battalion were then shipped out to Gallipoli as part of the Gallipoli campaign. At Chunuk Bair on 7 August, 1915 Arthur Charles Peat was killed in action.-

– lest we forget, we will remember them.

The Remarkables

The Remarkables – Buy 

I was staying the night in Frankton near Queenstown in South Islands Lakes District. In the last few years the development and growth in Frankton has been quite amazing. So, I found myself staying there the night before an early morning flight from Queenstown Airport the next morning. Late in the afternoon I went for a walk on a section of the Twins River Trail which is part of the Queenstown Great Ride’ network that follows the iconic Kawarau and Shotover Rivers and provides wonderful views of The Remarkables.

The Blue Lake of St Bathans

The Blue Lake of St Bathans – Buy 

When Gold was discovered in Otago by Australian Gabirel Reid, in 1861,  it started what was to become known as the Great Otago Rush. The rush brought miners from all over the world to the Otago region who steadily made their way inland as the hunt for gold, fame and fortune took them all over the barren hills of the Central Otago landscape. 

By around 1863, the search for gold had brought miners to an area known as Dunstan Creek, a place now called St Bathans, and a town quickly grew. The famous Vulcan Hotel was built in the area in 1882 and by 1887, the place had developed into a bustling town of over 2000 people. 
In the area, one of the main ways to search for gold was by sluicing, where powerful jets of water are blasted at banks that wash gravel into sluice boxes. The boxes then trap the gold at the bottom of the box. In St Bathans, this method was so popular that the nearby Kildare Hill was transformed into a 168 metre deep pit. It was only when the pit started getting too close to the town that mining was halted in 1934. Once mining was stopped, the huge hole was filled with water which created the beautiful blue lake that we see today.

George Duppa Of Oriental Bay

Oriental Bay – Buy 

George Duppa first arrived in Port Nicholson on the ship The Oriental in early 1840. Born near Maidstone, Kent, England in 1819, George was the youngest son of Baldwin and Mary Duppa. Upon arrival in Aotearoa he spent time clearing land on the west bank of the Hutt River until he eventually moved to the area now known as Oriental Bay. Once in the bay, he erected a prefabricated house that he had shipped out from England.

At the time, the area was called Duppa because of its one and only resident. In fact, the bay was so remote that it was also used for quarantine purposes. It only became known as Oriental bay after George Duppa named the area after the ship he originally arrived on.

Tripod on Courtney Place

Tripod on Courtney Place – Buy 

If you wander around Wellington for long enough you’ll come across some of the sculptures that are placed around the city. One of these is a giant 6½-metre-high tripod sculpture that was created by Weta Workshop. The bronze sculpture is made from recycled mechanical parts including old camera reels, Nintendo controllers, Gameboys, a toasted sandwich maker, among other objects. Unveiled in 2005 at the end of Courtney Place, it was commissioned by the Wellington City Council to celebrate the film industry.

Makarora

Makarora – Buy 

Earlier this year I spent a few days in Makarora. While I was there, I planned on going to visit the famous Blue Pools. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the car park I found a large sign saying the two swing bridges that lead to the Blue Pools were closed due to the bridges having reached the end of their life. It also went on to advise that while the track was open, access to the Blue Pools wasn’t possible. Not wanting to waste a good bush walk, the best I could figure was that a walk through the forest would still be nice and rivers are always pleasant to watch, so I happily set off following the track into the bush.

The Dingle Burn

The Dingle Burn – Buy 

This isn’t quite the Dingle Burn, but it’s pretty close to it. Access to this whole area starts at the Dingle Burn Peninsula Track and leads to the Turihuka Conservation Area, the Hāwea Conservation Park and the Hunter River Tracks. The whole area is very magnificent and has tracks that can take anything from several hours to several days to walk and enjoy.

The Red Glenorchy Shed

Store Shed At Day BreakThe Red Glenorchy Shed – Buy 

Like most towns in Otago and the Lake’s District, Glenorchy was born out of the gold rush that occurred in the 1860’s. Once Glenorchy was settled and populated by prospectors, the only real access to it was via steamers that carried people and cargo up and down the lake from Queenstown. At Glenorchy, the goods and cargo going to and from steamers on the lake was stored and sorted in a goods shed that also operated as the local station. 

As the steamers were owned by NZ Railways, Glenorchy was officially a railway station and the rails that ran from the end of the wharf to the shed were technically railway. Thus, at the time, the track that ran from the shed to the end of the wharf was the shortest piece of railway in the country.

Harrolds Bay From Acker’s Cottage

Harrolds Bay from Acker’s cottage – Buy 

This is the view from Lewis Acker’s stone cottage on Stewart Island looking out to Harrolds Bay. Acker lived quite an amazing life which started in New England, America, around 1815. He then went to sea which brought him to the shores of Aotearoa as a 16 year old. He returned several years later as part of the sealing and whaling industry before purchasing 600 acres of land on Stewart Island from local Maori. It was here in a small bay on Stewart Island that Acker built a remarkable stone, one room, two windowed house where he lived with his wife Mary Pi and eight children until they moved back to the mainland in 1856. 

It seems that Acker was a particularly skilled person as not only did he spend time working in the sealing and whaling industry, but he built boats, ran a sawmill, was a river boat pilot and spent time running a farm. At the time of his death in 1885, aged around 70 he had been married twice and was father to 14 children, having outlived six of them.