I ate a delightful lunch at a charming place called Chocolate Dayz Cafe before I headed off on foot along the Pencarrow Coast. Having no plan apart from walking as far as I could. I spent the afternoon strolling along the coastal streets through Eastbourne and along the beaches stopping to look at nothing in particular before heading back for my ferry.
Being a few minutes early I ventured across to an ice cream parlour to buy a drink where a young man was in the process of failing to balance two scoops of ice cream on a cone. This task he failed at twice more before the customer equally failed at using his debit card to pay for the items. All of this was completed moments before I could insist on making and paying for the bloody things myself to avoid dying of old age.
A short time later, clutching my well deserved drink and seated on the ferry the vessel set off once more across the harbour.
I found my way back to the Steamer Basin which is part of the wharfs on Otago Harbour. A short walk over the railway tracks, it’s relatively close to the nearby Queens Gardens, The Exchange and a range of eating establishments. Unfortunately, to get there from the city, you have to walk over an overbridge which you have to share with traffic that also wants to cross the railway lines. Why on earth previous city councils haven’t thought to build a pedestrian only walkway from the Queens Gardens to the Steamer Basin I really can’t say!
Back in the summer months, I spent a day exploring near the area of Portobello on the Otago Peninsula. I timed my day with low tide, meaning I had loads of fun scrambling over the shoreline rocks near the aquarium, walking along tracks that went around the hillside and taking lots of photos from unique angles. I also spent some time sitting in the long grass enjoying the view looking back down Otago Harbour.
A long exposure shot of lights from passing cars, vans and trucks made an interesting overlay effect for this photograph of the entrance to Lan Yuan, the Dunedin Chinese Gardens and the sculpture directly in front of it..
What a difference a day makes, just 24 little hours as the song goes. Yesterday, in Dunedin there were snow flurries all day. It rained, it hailed and the wind was blowing a gale. A real winter’s day with the temperature not more than 5 degrees. Today however, the snow, hail and wind was gone, patches of rain passed through the city and the temperature almost reached double figures. By early evening it was almost pleasant along the Coastline, relatively speaking.
Late yesterday afternoon I was in the Pine Hill area of Dunedin as the snow, wind, hail and rain was passing through the city. I ventured up to one of the bridges that crosses over the Northern Motorway with the simple idea of getting a wintery traffic image. Unfortunately, my timing was a little off as I must have stood on that bridge for nearly half an hour waiting for the next snow flurries to pass through.
In the morning, my initial plan was to get a photo of the moon as it hung in the sky over the Dunedin suburb of St Clair. It was casting a lovely soft glow over the ocean, creating quite a surreal scene. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the right location and angle to get the shot I wanted. So, instead I headed towards the city when at the last minute I noticed the sunrise was creating all sorts of lovely colours over Dunedin’s streamer basin. Of course, by the time I reached the harbour I was starting to run short of time, meaning I only had time to rattle off a few shots before I had to head off again.
It almost seems impossible to believe the run of fine weather recently in Dunedin. There was a blip last Wednesday or Thursday when strong wind and heavy rain closed in around the city, however, since then it has pretty much been bright sunshine. The weekend from Friday onwards was warm and balmy and that stretched into yesterday. The conditions on Sunday were lovely for strolling to and from Dunedin Stadium to see the New Zealand Football Ferns and on Monday evening I went on a short tiki-tour along Otago Peninsula to see the sunset from the often photographed Otago Peninsula cabbage tree.
Switzerland vs New Zealand at Dunedin Stadium – Buy
What a wonderful night it was last night at Dunedin Stadium for the Football Ferns Fifa World Cup pool match against Switzerland. Heading to the ground on what had been a lovely Dunedin day, it dawned on me that I didn’t really know much of the Ferns history. I couldn’t tell you how they qualified for the World Cup or who any of the players were. Yet, somehow it didn’t seem to matter. I wasn’t going along with expectations of performance from certain players. I was simply heading along for pure enjoyment.
So, for 90 minutes (plus injury time) we cheered, we yelled, we screamed, we roared, we clapped our hands and we stomped our feet. Willing the Ferns to find the back of the net. Yes, there was a lack of goals (0-0), but what the match lacked in goals it made up for with share enjoyment. Long may it continue.
This is another Dunedin at dawn photo I took while searching the city streets in the early hours. This is a particularly busy corner as morning traffic travels down the hill from Roslyn and the other surrounding suburbs into the centre of the city. It’s a great place to take photos as it’s got a lovely old educational college on the corner along with a long, sweeping bend that captures the light trails made by the morning traffic going up and down the hill.
The sunrises had been pretty decent in the preceding days. So, with that in mind and feeling the need to spend some time wandering the city streets in the early morning hours, I went in search of interesting views. My plan was simple: find locations that featured the city and the colourful early morning sky.
The Cardrona bra fence began around 1999 when a few bras mysteriously appeared on a fence along the Cardrona Valley sometime around New Years. Since then, more bras were added to the fence until it grew into an attraction all of its own. There’s even a donation box there where you can make a contribution to the Breast Cancer Foundation.
Price Waterhouse Coopers Tower in Wellington – Buy
While wandering through Wellington I started looking at all the buildings from different angles. The more I strolled through the streets, the more I searched out different perspectives. It really was rather fun exploring a city via car parks, alleyways and stairwells. Along a street called ‘The Terrace’ which is located in the city centre near Lambton Quay, I came across the Price Waterhouse Coopers Tower building that I photographed from across the road and via a car park. It also had some neat colours against the bright blue sky.
I grabbed this image while driving through East Otago one morning near the small settlement of Flag Swamp. There are lots of small roads that branch off the State Highway, and they have lots of interesting sights and there are even a few walkways that you can walk along. I used to detour down them a lot, just for the fun of it or if I knew a good location at sunrise.
Arriving, what I found was something altogether quite different. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I had to double check on Google Maps that I was in the right place. After parking my car beside a sign that said, ‘Evansdale Glen Scenic Reserve’ I was still sure there must be some mistake. Yet here I was. Standing, phone in hand, jaw well and truly dropped looking out beyond a hidden bush canopy. This must be what the New Zealand wilderness is like I thought.
Last week I shared with you an image I took of the popular ‘That Wanaka Tree’ in Wanaka. This is a different view of it showing some of the crowd that gathers every night. On this occasion the crowd was fairly small with only around two dozen people gathering near it at dusk. That’s a fairly small crowd as the numbers some nights can get extremely large.
Morning clouds loom over the Kirkliston range in the Hakataramea Valley. Tucked away in the Waimate District, the Hakataramea Valley sits at the foot Kirkliston range in the South Island of New Zealand.
Leaving Glenorchy and heading up past the head of Lake Wakatipu, then along the Glenorchy-Paradise I eventually reached Diamond Lake. From there, I continued on a way until I passed a wonderful beech forest in the Paradise Valley. To fans of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ the forest is also known as Lothlorien, realm of the Elves.
While I was travelling through the North Island, I came to Porirua Harbour. Located between Plimmerton and Paremata, I crossed the bridge on Mana Esplanade and started heading towards Browns Bay. Along the way, I passed the Paremata Boat Club. It was a stunning day and the harbour was perfectly still with a slow moving tide gently rocking against the surrounding boathouses. A lovely day for walking along the water’s edge.
When I was visiting Waitangi I went to the treaty grounds which is a very spiritual place. In the Upper Grounds there’s the Treaty House and also a Wharenui called Te Whare Rūnanga, which is a carved Māori meeting house. Inside the Wharenui we were allowed to take photos of all the wonderful carvings which are amazing to see.
Once I was home, and after processing the original image I decided to have a bit of fun with reflections, lines of symmetry and mirror lines to create this finished image.
The town of Makarora is situated on the Haast Pass Highway between Wānaka and the West Coast. I stayed in Makarora for three days, two nights, and on the last day it snowed heavily. This left all the surrounding mountains covered in thick snow. It also, meant that on the way home it created some stunning scenery along the shores of Lake Wānaka.
In the small Central Otago town of Waipiata I found this sculpture of the planet Jupiter. At first it seemed a rather random place to have a sculpture such as this but, I figured it must be there for a reason. Instead, I was much more interested in the unique shape and structure of it and the way it looked against the clear blue sky. I then spent a good 20 minutes photographing it from all sorts of usual angles and distances.
I’d spent the day at Cape Palliser, the southernmost point of the North Island. There, I explored the famous lighthouse, wandered around a few of the fishing villages, avoided washed out sections of road and went for a walk along the beach. Now, arriving back at my base of Martinborough, I discovered snow was starting to fall. Earlier in the day, I read that snow was forecast to fall in the Wairarapa area however that was something I’d chosen to ignore. I’d simply assumed it wouldn’t happen. After all, how often do you really believe snow will fall when it’s forecast.
The Hayes family homestead and engineering works really is an intriguing place and tribute to the term ‘No 8 wire thinking.’ In fact, an argument can be made for Ernest Hayes to be one of the original backyard Kiwi innovators (even though he was actually English!). Set amongst the rural backdrop of Oturehua in Central Otago, Hayes set-up his home and engineering workshop around 1895 where he invented all manner of agricultural tools, rabbit bait cutters, wind turbines and a patented wire strainer for applying tension to wire on farm fences. Which is still in production to this very day.
On my way to Ranfurly in the Maniototo, I stopped near the small town of Dunback. I’d been following the line of the Shag River which rises in the Kakanui Mountains and flows all the way to the Pacific Ocean near the town of Palmerston. Along the way, I’d spotted a few promising photo locations and finally decided to stop by a ford in the Inch Valley, only five minutes from Dunback. There, I found the river maintaining some of the flow created by the recent rain.
As much as I grow tired of seeing images of ‘That Wanaka Tree’, I have to admit that it does create a great subject for a photo. With the surroundings of the lake, mountains and big clear skies, it makes a wonderful scene for an image. In fact, if you catch it on a still autumn morning with moody clouds in the sky and mist rising off the lake, or on a calm, summer evening after the sun has set as colours hang around in the sky, it’s really rather magical. Therein lies the problem, it’s a vicious circle really.
By the time I arrived in the Mount Cook Village it was snowing heavily. Once I’d found the car park and after navigating my way through the snow in the fading dusk to the Alpine Lodge, I walked in through the front door to the reception covered in a blanket of snow. The owner then informed me that it had been snowing for around 12 to 18 hours and it seemed to be easing.
The next morning in the bright sunlight, the village was covered in deep snow. Scanning the village around me, it all looked very wonderful. The day’s expedition involved a 10km round trip hike through the Hooker Valley to the Hooker Lake. Now, with the heavy snowfall, I found myself eager to get going.
While I was in the North Island, I spent some time in the Wairarapa District. On my travels, one of the places I stayed at was Fareham House in Featherston. Before I arrived, I had read it was haunted and upon arrival in Featherston while browsing in a local bookstore, one of the owners had informed me that it ‘most definitely is.’So, you can imagine my excitement and anticipation when upon arrival I found the house to be a massive historic homestead, set amongst 25 acres of farmland, bush and orchard. The perfect setting for some ghostly ghouls to haunt.
Unfortunately, the only thing I discovered at Fareham House was a hangover the next morning after a little too much overindulgence at a bar the night before.
The church on the corner of Church, Robertson and Baker Street in Russell (Kororāreka) was one of the places I wanted to visit while staying in the small town. Not only is it New Zealand’s oldest surviving church however it contains the grave sites of important Māori leaders Tamati Waka Nene, Hannah King and many other names linked to New Zealand’s history. It also has the graves of men from the HMS Hazard who died in the battle of Kororāreka which took place March 1845. What makes the church even more interesting is that as it was at the centre of the conflict between Māori and the British Army, there are bullet holes scattered around the church that remain to this very day.
… from a Small City. My daily musings from Ōtepoti to get you inspired. Read the blog, view the photos, embrace the creativity.
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Pier at Days Bay – Buy
Carving at Te Whare Rūnanga – 
