Historical Note: McLean Falls is at the end of Rewcastle Road which is about 3 kilometres from the main road. Since it was a nice day, we decided to walk the 3 kilometres to the start of the walking track. After a few uphill climbs with the sun getting warmer, it was definitely nice to see a cool river before having to walk back!
Photographic Note: At the falls, the river plunges an astounding 22 metres into a ravine. This meant I wanted a slower shutter speed to give the water a candy floss style look, but not overexposing the surrounding bush at the same time.
Historical Note: Exploring around the coastline of Karitane and the Huriawa Pa was really fun. I found myself clambering over rocks, past seaweed and even stopping to view a few rock pools. It was like revisiting my childhood. Mind you, I couldn’t have picked a windier day to do it!
Photographic Note: I instantly knew I wanted to do this shot in black and white. The textures of the rock and the wood when added to the early afternoon light meant my mind was thinking and seeing in black and white.
Shag Point Coastline, Shag Point, East Otago – Buy
Historical Note: I was happy to see the sun come up over the rocks with the sea slowly drifting in and out. The local sea lions weren’t as happy to see me! They seemed to be in a grumpy mood, so I kept a respectful distance and found a spot that was away from where they were.
Photographic Note: I tend to leave wildlife alone. When wildlife get close, I often put the camera away and just let them be. On this occasion I focused on something else. I did need to keep one eye open however as they were all moving and starting to look for breakfast.
Historical Note: I was driving home late one evening through East Otago, after a very long day. As I drove, I watched the sky change and evolve as the night drew closer. I finally decide to stop and found myself a nice spot beside a tree that opened out onto a field.
Photographic Note: I wanted to frame the picture on the right with the tree, drawing the eye into the field with the long grass. At the same time capturing the colours that were changing in the sky and keeping the green glow of the field.
Historical Note: The area around Macraes really has to be caught in a dramatic light. In a nice light or moody conditions, the landscape starts to take on a different façade. The tussock, rocks and barren features all become interesting structures on their own.
Photographic Note: We’d been driving around the area near Macraes Flat for an hour or so without any luck. There was low lying mist and while it was very atmospheric, there wasn’t much happening in the way of interesting scenes. That was until we came around a bend and saw an old, unused carriage.
Historical Note: The wind was fairly whistling through the Ida Valley when I saw this view from the car window. It was a moment that seemed typical of the Ida Valley.
Photographic Note: I took the opportunity to take this from a low perspective as it gave the image a different feeling and mood. Once the horizon was lowered the image instantly changed and made me start to wonder ….
Historical Note: Getting to Poolburn is an adventurous drive up the Old Dunstan Road that twists and turns through part of the Ida Valley. Once you get there, it’s like an Oasis or a well-kept secret with the old huts scattered around a marvellous lake.
Photographic Note: I played around with all sorts of compositions at Poolburn and I fell into the trap of over thinking what I wanted to capture. The final result (which I’m pretty pleased with), came after putting the camera down, stopping and asking myself, “what unique view speaks to me?”
Home Hills Runs Road, St Bathans, Central Otago – Buy
Historical Note: There are many roads around the St Bathans and Ida Valley area like Home Hills Runs Road. They seem long and deserted, yet they still have their own unique sense of calmness and wonder.
Photographic Note: Once I dropped the horizon down and let the sky and road take centre stage this image started to give the sense of what it really felt like, standing in the middle of an empty Central Otago Road.
Lake Dunstan & Clyde Dam, Clyde, Central Otago – Buy
Historical Note: The trip to the top of the lookout about Clyde is a pretty spectacular drive, however I ended up doing it in the middle of winter, in the dark, with a decent frost on the ground. About three quarters of the way up I had to abandon the car (due to ice) and finish the journey on foot!
Photographic Note: This shot was an exercise in patience. Once I found the spot I wanted it was a case of getting the settings and calculations correct and waiting for cars to head along the road beside Lake Dunstan while hoping the sky lasted.
Historical Note: I was hoping to get a few more people surfing in this shot than I did. There had been a large number in the water, but by the time I had scrambled up a bank to get an evaluated view, they had all headed into the beach.
Photographic Note: I was timing this shot with captuirng the waves as they were building, before breaking. There was also a challenge with getting two waves breaking together before the sun hit and the colours blew-out.
If there’s one text you should read at Christmas time it’s the letter eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to the editor of New York’s Sun newspaper in September, 1897. The response by Francis Church has since become one of the most reprinted newspaper editorials in history. Here it is in full: “Yes, Virgina, there is a Santa Claus”
Have a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
Haast Pass, Mount Aspiring National Park – Otago – Buy
Historical Note: Driving over the summit of the Haast Pass from Makarora to Haast, I was greeted with heavy rain. Returning back to Makarora three hours later the whole area was covered in thick, heavy mountain snow. What’s more, there were lots of tourists in the area with cars sliding all over the place.
Photographic Note: I was standing in the middle of road when I took this. Meaning, I hand to work quickly. Not having the time to set up a tripod, I got 8 photos taken before I had to move. The first two were blurry due to movement in the trees. In third and fouth shots the composition was all wrong, resulting in four in usable images to choose from.
Historical Note: I took this photograph all the way to the point of publication, despite feeling there was something about it, that didn’t seem right. Then, I realised what it was. I didn’t like the image at all. I’d done a terrible job in processing it and the finished product looked nothing like what I had imagined. So, I scrapped the entire image and started over. Now you get to see a much better photography, and one I’m actually pleased with.
Photographic Note: The milling of wheat and flour was a key component of the early North Otago economy and Clarks Mill near Oamaru was an important part of that production. Opened in 1867 for the New Zealand and Australia Land Company, Clarks Mill was originally equipped with grinding stones powered by a water wheel. Since the mill was in a rather awkward location beside a bend of the Kakanui River, it required the construction of a long water race to power it.
I wanted to have a little bit of fun editing this image. It’s taken from the top of a very steep lookout in the Lindis Pass. While finishing the image, I began to wonder what it would look like without the road passing through it. So, I took it out!! Doesn’t it look like another world? I imagine this is what the surface of Mars might look like.
I spent the evening exploring the beauty of Second Beach at St Clair. Along this stretch of beach, years of consistent wave movement have created great drifts of raggedly oval stones worn to a polished smoothness. They are nearly impossible to walk on since your feet sink with each step while at the same time having to navigate piles of driftwood that have washed up. The coast path above the beach is much easier and doesn’t require clambering up and down a bank to reach it. At any one time you’ll meet anyone and everyone from the young to old, those getting their daily fitness quota, surfers and people just enjoying a tranquil escape for 5 minutes. No matter which option you take, if it’s the beach or the path you’ll hear the sea, crashing into the shore creating a seemingly endless musical score of stones clattering on the water’s edge. It’s one of the most glorious places in Dunedin.
During the 1840s, the whaling trade/industry around parts of New Zealand had started to fade away. Kapiti Island was one of these locations. At this time, much of the land on the Island was cleared for farming and sheep, goats, pigs, deer, cats, and dogs were introduced. For the next forty to fifty years, the island was farmed until around 1900 when the government purchased most of the island and developed it into a predator-free, bird sanctuary.
On my way through the North Island I had a look around the town of Mangaweka. I was hoping to see the DC-3 aircraft tearooms and cafe, however, to my disappointment it was no-longer in existence, having moved two years previously in 2021. For over 30 years, one of the North Island’s most famous landmarks was the elevated Douglas DC-3 aircraft installed in the middle of Mangaweka as a tearooms. Opening in 1984, it was a popular roadside stop on State Highway 1 in the central North Island until 2021 when the plane was moved and then put up for sale in 2023.
So, with the absences of the DC-3 aircraft tearooms, I called in at the Mangarere/Rangitikei River rest stop as tropical cyclone Hale was moving down along the east coast of North Island.
Finding myself with no place to be, and with a bit of time to spare, I went for an amble around Christchurch. It had been a good five years since I’d visited the city centre and it was with interest that I strolled the streets around Cathedral Square. One of the new buildings I found (although hard to miss) was Te Pae. Te Pae, literally meaning “gathering place” in te reo Māori, is the new Christchurch Convention Centre.
Accessible only by specific ferry companies, Kapiti Island is a wonderful place to spend some time. These days, the predator-free Island is managed by the Department of Conservation however back in the mid-1830s, there were up to five whaling stations on the island. At the time, European traders and whalers were populating the coastlines and so local iwi provided them with land, pigs, potatoes, dressed flax and women in return for guns, tobacco and alcohol.
With a bit of time to spare I spent a lazy afternoon casually wandering around the boardwalk at Orokonui Lagoon. At one point, while walking over the road bridge that leads to Doctors Point I became distracted by this railway bridge. While crossing the road bridge, I came across a family who were fishing. The children were having a wonderful time, even if they hadn’t caught anything.
This is the view from the stage at Dunedin’s Regent Theatre. It must be a surreal feeling to walk out on stage when the place is full with its 1600 seat capacity. In fact, the theatre’s stage was the largest in New Zealand until the Aotea Centre in Auckland opened in 1990.
Dating back to 1928, The Regent Theatre was registered as a Category 1 historic building in 1987 meaning it is a national place of outstanding historical and cultural significance and value. It’s also reported to be haunted with ghost stories including tales of “the lady in the dressing rooms.”
The corner of Cannongate and Serpentine Avenue– Buy
When I had last walked around this area of Dunedin it was the middle of winter and the area had a bit of a drab feel to it. Now that the trees (and bush) are full of summer colour and life it looks completely different. Actually, this image is more of a test run to see how the composition sits. I like the curved shapes, it’s something a bit different. I think I’ll revisit it at some point as I have a few other ideas I want to try out.
I spent a couple of hours wandering around the beach at dawn. It was one of those mornings where you could feel the sunrise coming, and it didn’t disappoint. The sky lit up a brilliant mix of yellow, orange, pink, purple and blue. It lingered, before dissolving as the sun hit.
This main sound awfully stupid, but for the first time it dawned on me in a profound way just how big a fence needs to be to keep predators out of an enclosed wildlife area. In this case, I found myself confronted with an impassable fence that was 9 kilometres in length, that protected 307 hectares of coastal forest from pests. Thus, ensuring native wildlife could thrive. It was at this point in my thinking that I became glad we have such visionaries living among us.
Lies of life step forth, Like lost faces in the night. Forgotten memories with musketeers, In the dawn I would rewrite. Silent voices echo, Void in space and time. Absent beliefs of innocence, Hidden and doubtful, sometimes.
Light in darkened shadows, Guard the empty road ahead. Before the places nothing moved, In the moment that I fed. Thoughts bring forth confusion, Voices echo within a technicolor dream, And I must seek for mine, Hidden and doubtful, It would seem.
North of Russell in the Bay of Islands, Tapeka Point is a former Māori Pa site. These days, it’s a lovely walk (although narrow and steep in places) that provides stunning views of the whole of the Bay of Islands.
Dating back to 1865, the Cardrona Hotel is an iconic pub/hotel situated in the Cardrona Valley, that dates back to the Otago gold rush days. It had numerous owners of the years, however none more famous than proprietor James “Jimmy’ Patterson. Having purchased the hotel in 1926, Jimmy Patterson owned the establishment for 35 years until his death at the age of 91 in 1961. His attitude towards serving alcohol to patrons was legendary in the area. He preferred not to sell alcohol to women, and the amount you could drink depended on the direction you were heading. For those heading into Wanaka, he would allow two drinks while those heading over the Crown Range were limited to a single glass.
This morning for some weird and strange reason I was thinking about world time zones as I published this image. For example, at the time of publishing it was 6:00am, on Wednesday 6th December in New Zealand. However, if you are San Francisco it would have been 9:00 am on Tuesday 5th December. How do I know this? Well, I looked it up on a World Clock! In New York it was 12:00 noon on Tuesday, in Dublin it was 5:00pm and in Moscow it was 8:00pm. In Beijing, China it was 1:00 am on Wednesday 6th December, in Tokyo it was 2:00 am, in Port Moresby it was 3:00 am and in Melbourne it was 4:00am.
So, hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or good night depending on where you are.
… 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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McLean Falls, The Catlins, Clutha District – Buy 
The Lindis Pass – 
