A week with a few differences!

Every week I take a couple of large water bottles down-town and fill them with very pure public spring water from near Bullock Creek. I prefer to do this very early in the morning, and it's not a bad idea to take my camera for any landscape photography that may present itself by this corner of Lake Wanaka.

This sunrise was one of the most spectacular I've ever seen. Similar views were apparentlyexperienced in Queenstown and Dunedin...


Next on the agenda on the above Friday morning was to say goodbye to Dougal, as he headed off for his first year at University in Dunedin. Despite the obvious changes for myself, I'm quite excited as it'll be the "makings" of him...


Then after the weekend I had a wee contract job teaching river crossing techniques to DOC staff/friends based around Glenorchy.

Here my good friend Stu starts the practical sessions on the bank of the mildly flooded Rees river...


By the end of Monday the weather was warmer, but the river was coming up as we trained, and getting more raw by the hour. Some sun on our departure was most welcome for this shot...


It was good to be off the islands we crossed to, and head home to Wanaka leaving the wild little Rees to carry on what it's been doing for thousands of years. The sediment from Muddy Creek was making it like soup too - very interesting.

A light trip back to Glenorchy and the Rees

Who was Rees you may well ponder? I recall from my school history days that perhaps he was a prospector. And although many are motivated by gold, last weekend my photographer and tramping friend Roger joined me to do some prospecting for images back in the area that was the focus of my recent posts on a Rees/Dart tramping trip.

However often in life in our rush to reach a goal we overlook many things, including, in my case an intriguing lagoon area with board-walks very near Glenorchy...






There happened to be some old "kiwiana" style clutter begging to be imaged nearby...


Forever the romantic though, my eyes wander quickly to the far hills - in this case [left to right] the Dart Valley, Mt Alfred, Mt Earnslaw and the Rees Valley. All old friends...


You can't keep a good man down they say, especially Roger in his self induced [photographic] zone in the Rees...


Anyone care to make a caption for this shot...


From top to bottom: my shorts, my knees, and my toes...


Perched on a cliff for a bird's eye view of the renown Muddy Creek - stopper of many a car and 4wd every time it rains and a few more tons of soft-rock is ground up and gravitated down the hill...


Where we camped on Sat. night in the Rees - a strong sunset...


On Sunday morning we were approached by some stranded climbers who had got their 4wd stuck way up the Rees in soft gravel and water. Like little kids we played in the water and sun extricating their Hi Lux, which was all a bit engrossing, so I never did make a photo of their dilemma, but Roger was there with his tripod 'till way after they drove off at speed - I'd said "give it heaps" if they ever had any more sinking feelings, and it seems they took me literally...


My trusty camper was a bit of a hero of the day - she can be high and mighty, but loved most of all for the kitchen stove in the back, and therefore sometimes she is known as "Cafe Toyota"...


Back in Glenorchy for a real coffee we did predictably wander about. You maybe forgiven for thinking this man is jumping from a moving train, but no, he had just been doing some more shooting, and I captured the get-away...


On closing please be aware that this blog is now on a new server, and there is some fine tuning to do soon as blogger has changed in a technical sense how we publish to our own domain names. So if it is static for awhile please pop in later. Meanwhile having got it shifted and tested via this post [noted odd things appearing on the right column, and comments one post behind], I'm behind on reading and commenting on the excellent blogs I follow.

Btw a heads up on a new local blog by friends D and G "Touring the Deep South of NZ"

Cheers

Donald