More on Fiordland, and teenage years, wilderness, relaxation and life

The last week has been quiet as autumn kicks in. As well as yoga I am doing something different lately in the form of getting a series of reflexology treatments. I've not had any for a couple of years - my old friend Rika used to give them to me, but she's passed on. I react well to these and I've now found a new person Danielle who comes over from Queenstown regularly. The treatments help me sort of rebalance physically for starters, and this can be hard on the odd day. However the overall effect is profound, and well... right now, life is looking a bit different already, and the serendipitous keeps on as a welcome part of it all. And who knows where this fits in...

During the week I became aware that my son Dougal is being quite challenged by life lately. He's 16 and dealing with things as they come along, but its almost as if these insightful and intelligent young men are seeing the world as it really is for the first time. With all it's injustices, difficult relationships, pollution and stupidity, it's selfishness and pain, that it all gets overwhelming for them.

Dougal at the helm of Elwing back in July 2005, steering us to Breaksea Sound...


I reckon teenagers like Dougal don't want to go forward into adulthood, they want to go back to innocence, but can't. He told me this back at about the time we were heading to Breaksea and onto Dusky Sound.

This is probably New Zealand's wildest coast line, yet on this day Fiordland was calm beyond imaginings...


One of the reasons I've embraced these expedition voyages for Dougal and myself has not only been my love of wilderness and his of natural history, but the mentoring that occurs for him on such adventures.

One such man who has had a huge beneficial influence has been Elwing's skipper, our good friend Arthur...


It was much different for me at the age of 16: I wanted to be an adult as fast as..., perhaps because I perceived them as having more fun and especially freedom.

Maybe Dougal is of a wiser generation though - one that knows better how to mix creativity and relaxation, and if the moment happens along, with wilderness...


For many young people currently they apparently start with dark sad thoughts and get into a pattern of returning there. It's a pattern worth breaking for all of us!

Water, bush, mountains and wilderness - for me this simplicity holds many of the ingredients for a healthy life. Among them I find it's a lot easier to be grateful for all we have. On this occasion we're afloat in a beautiful calm evening well on our way. It's hard to think other than being grateful...


We made Breaksea in the dark and with the aid of spotlights and rocks this was what we awoke to...


To know that wilderness exists - this I think is a very important thing in life, and we must strive to bring this into consciousness [and to protect these environments]. For in time of turmoil it's a reference point, and if we can regularly go there physically or otherwise, it's a place of reflection and healing.

Arthur prepares to haul up the anchor amidst the exhaust of the diesel warming up - not only do we need these in life, but how interesting that water is the symbol of emotions...


Enthusiasm for life and some adventure also seems to be a good ingredients for a happy time. When times are tough giving our children, and those of others, unconditional love is all the more necessary.

It's easy to love when your son gets up, grabs some toast, and heads for his fishing rod...


One thing I've learnt the last week is to take more time out to relax - work at it! The reflexology has been indicating this quite strongly, and so to the tendency to worry about teenagers.

These seals have the right idea about relaxation, and it's not called Seal Island for nothing...


They also know a thing or two chilling out as they do, near the pantry...


Blog of the week: Headroom by Gregor Ronald

Thanks to Arthur, Helen, and Dougal for the inspiration for the above words, people and landscape photography.

Fiordland: a place where you can find pretty near anything lost

An eclectic mix: musings, landscape photography, vineyards, life in Wanaka, history and my new iPhone

Last weekend was Wanaka Show weekend. For those of you non New Zealand readers a "Show Day" is a fair day held annually in the various provinces on different dates, and is a couple of days usually where town meets country. Livestock is judged, there are horse events [many go from show to show following them around the country], trade exhibits, pet parades [how I loved taking my son to these with the pet of the moment, puppies, guinea pigs etc], children's art shows, photography, baking, preserves, vegetables, all with modest prizes for all winners. It's pretty cool and the history is rich, but perhaps the most interesting thing is it's not rained on the Wanaka Show in about 50 years, and on schedule this year, bingo, the weather settled at last into chilly airs and stunning sunshine with no wind. And so the legend continues!

Dougal and Badger, the former looking pleased with his prize certificate, while Badger's attention is on the other dogs nearby! A copy from a photo that appeared in the local paper back in March 2004...


My good friend Roger was in town for the Sunday after doing a photo shoot in Fiordland, so we decided to have an evening out making photos in the Bendigo area in the Dunstan Mts., only 30 mins. drive from home, and rich with gold mining history.

On the lower slopes there are now many sunny slightly elevated areas planted in grapes, and the bird netting makes for some interesting variations on landscape photography...


Laying it out must be quite a job, and even more so rolling it up again...




But there is plenty of landscape left in it's more undeveloped state - looking north here from the site of the historic gold mining town of Welsh Town, up the lower Lindis valley...


Higher up is Logan Town, which is the more commonly visited and photographed area. I took this series of shots back in 2007...






And during the week I finally bought an iPhone. OK mainly for work, but the gadget kid in me is having a great time. I'll be posting about it for weeks in my work blog I think, and already I've found it's camera useful.

Lastly this week's blog recommendation is Robb Kloss's Musings from Aotearoa. Great writing illustrated with photos and a strong flavour of family and the Ruahine Range in the North Island, with attention to environmental issues. Thanks Robb

Wanaka - new, old and a larger landscape that does change, be it slowly.

These days as parking becomes more of a hassle in downtown Wanaka [and sadly more Queenstown like] I park above Ardmore St. on Lismore and walk down to do my shopping and get a coffee and muffin at Soul Foods. The return up-hill exercise does me good too!

Roy's Peak in the background never changes much, but the foreground does...


Downtown the old Masonic Lodge is becoming a symbol of the past, and it's being kept tidy. Perhaps helped by funds accrued by hiring out the land around the building as parking space...


I found this photo on the wall recently out at Lake Hawea at the hotel in good enough light to photograph it. I find it so symbolic of the past history of Wanaka that I know I had no choice but to make a photo of the photo. Obviously a winter shot [note ski auction banner] - the center building is the old Wanaka Town Hall, now long gone. What a great atmosphere that building had. I even remember going to movies there 45 years ago as a kid, and it never changed really, just becoming a maintenance impossibility until it's demise several years ago. For those of you regular Wanaka visitors the Infinity Investment Group's building is now to the right of the site. From the right: Wanaka Four Square still in operation, next Tuatara Pizza just changed hands to something ... Bistro and it used to be Monley's cafe. Then we now have Soul Foods downstairs in what used to be where you did NZR bus bookings, and the Gilliams sold magazines and newspapers in the 80s. Upstairs was a yoga studio until recently, and the large carport was where the NZR [New Zealand Railways] buses used to load and unload. Correct me if I'm wrong but prior to this it was a garage [Mansons?]...


This photo I've republished from this week's Mount Aspiring College newsletter. Twenty Years Young they say, this year. I still vividly remember attending the official opening by Princess Anne. It was a very hot day, and it was the last time I ever wore a suit in my life! I was also wearing my favourite glacier sunglasses and must have looked a sight. I was so "heat struck" I missed the opportunity for meaningful conversation over little onions and cheese bits stuck on toothpicks, with glasses of wine or cups of tea!


Last night I made this shot up on the mid slopes of Mt Iron. From a Wanaka landscape photography point-of-view I quite like it's "vanishing point" point, that leads my eye on a journey into a sense of distance [Mt Iron being an area that challenges me composition wise]. Again though while the basic form of the mountains remain unchanged as you'd expect, the growing vegetation speaks volumes about the evolution of the area...

Moods of Fiordland

Following last week's popular blog on landscape photography in Dusky and Doubtful Sounds, this week's theme is on the moods that are unique to Fiordland. Again taken in 2005 in July, and featuring Doubtful Sound on our way back from Dusky with our friends Arthur and Barbara on board their Elwing. A special voyage for us all as it was Elwing's first wanderings in these waters - how very special to do it in the company of friends!

It's not well known that there is much circumstantial evidence that suggests the Spaniards landed in New Zealand just near here on Bauza Island probably before Capt. Cook...


As I've been compiling this post I've been struck by how these images have been waiting for "their time", and how Fiordland has come into my awareness so much of late that I'm compelled to bring them into the light along with the story. I wonder why!?

Heading up Crooked Arm intending to tramp across to Dagg Sound we encountered ice and it was rather scary at this point [note tenseness in crew's posture] due to the noise..


So we hove-to deciding to assess [and photograph] the situation...


The assessment took the form of scooting around Elwing in the inflatable examining the hull and ice thickness. Personally I found it very lonely amongst the ice in such a small craft, but it was good for photography...




Back on-board again we motored up the Arm a bit further following a steel hulled craft that happened along, as Elwing's glass-over-Kauri hull was getting damaged right on the nose of the bow...


This is the point at which we hove-to again. The ice was 3-4 inches thick here and our ice-breaker had to give up. It was so cold our "lead" was freezing over, but the noise of the ice echoing off the cliffs and the situation was so unique and spectacular we had a cuppa before retreating...


After getting a dose of sun out in the openness of Doubtful, we next headed up Hall Arm for the night following a fishing boat out of Bluff...


After many days of aloneness in the sounds it felt quite strange to have company anchored nearby for the night, and it struck me most during my usual nocturnal visit to the deck in the early hours - seeing a light across the water on a canvas of precipitous mountain walls of 1500 meters with their feet in the water just by us, seemed surreal to say the least...


During the night it started raining softly and of course then, in typical Fiordland fashion, the waterfalls festooned the mountain sides...


One of our crew, Colin, was keen to get a deer, so while we went ashore at an interesting spot where a creek offered easy egress upwards aways, he prowled this area. Here Arthur is coming back from picking him up [empty handed]...


To be raining has to be the natural state of Fiordland, and I find it so beautiful even when I'm soaked, so with Elwing's warm and dry cabin nearby it was far from onerous to stay on-deck for hours to make these landscape shots...


Heading towards Elizabeth Island...


For me this view epitomises Fiordland - moodiness and mystery abound...


Right on evening/dusk the light went to some unusual colours...


Sadly the following day the trip was over, and here is Dougal eyeing up the jetty in Deep Cove where we caught the daily tourist bus back to Lake Manapouri [Maori for Lake of the Sorrowing Heart - so apt!]. Here we said good bye to Arthur, who sailed solo back to Stewart Island a few days later after spending a few days in Dusky again...


There are still more images and stories related to this adventure, but it's been a long week underscored by this long post, so until next time. In the meantime with the week having brought me many coincidences and serendipity, my note to self and others is: stay grounded, protect ourselves from situations and people that drain us and immerse in the practical tasks of life with always an eye for the tendency of situations to guide us. Bring all into our awareness for our own sakes and in the service of others.

**Blog of the week [a new feature - each week I'll endeavour to include a link to something I've found inspiring or enjoyable]: Bob McKerrow's post on 40,000 houses built by the Red Cross in Aceh Indonesia

Gentle breathing all :)

A very remote landscape

The weather has been trying of late, so not much to report here. However during the week I've had cause consider another expedition voyage to Fiordland, so I thought I'd share some of my favourite landscape photography images of one section of Fiordland made on a similar visit there in 2005 on board Elwing with my friends Arthur and Barbara. Maybe "seascape" would be a more fitting word to use!

Some of New Zealand's wildest coastline at peace...


Approaching Breaksea Sound in the dusk...


Looking west down Doubtful Sound...


Ice on the surface of Crooked Arm in Doubtful Sound...






Fiordland in it's natural rainy state...


Dawn from Elwing's deck - Pickersgill Harbour in Dusky Sound...


Yip, I'm going to try to get back one day! It's a haunting, very large and enchanting place is Dusky. So often too it felt like Capt. Cook and his Resolution had just left 2 weeks ago rather than over 200 years ago. He and his crew did such audacious and elegant exploration back in 1773, in the times of horrific and draconian events in Western Europe. Such a contrast in history!

The most audacious image I've ever seen made on this remote coastline is by the famous New Zealand landscape photographer Andris Apse. I really recommend clicking the link