Aerial landscape photography, or what a lot of mountains in New Zealand

The end of this work week has been a little significant, and Friday will be a day to remember: I had two back teeth removed, after struggling for nearly a year to overcome a pocket of infection.

A few hours afterwards I was really chuffed to find myself flying around parts of Fiordland National Park.

Mitre Peak in Milford Sound once again evoked strong reactions in me, and is probably the most photographed mountain in New Zealand, so maybe I'm not alone in these feelings...


I once had a 17 day tramping / climbing trip in this locality, and it was memorable for two facts: we were fortunate to climb one of the remote mountains near this photo, and we only had 10 days food...

Landscape photography takes on a whole other perspective, with accompanying issues, when done from a plane or helicopter. Things like struts, rotor blades, and perspex windows make for challenges and reflections, so one answer is to take lots of images, then modify a select few in PhotoShop.

Cruise boats on Milford Sound...

This wonderful journey took me back, as I've walked a few of the valleys, passes and peaks we flew around and over. But that's another story.

And to finish on a note of just how diverse our New Zealand landscape is, this is the more unseen backside of Roys Peak, Wanaka...

A lot like fly fishing

This weekend my good friend Roger is in town. Both being fiendishly keen on making photos [usually landscape], we always spend sometime looking at the recent additions to our personal photo libraries, discuss possibilities/creativity and get out there at dawn or dusk to be there [f8 at 250th of a sec. and be there, as they say, are the chief ingredients to making images].

One of the local farmlets on the way to Glendhu Bay has a new addition to their entrance, but I'm not sure of the significance of the clay man or the cross, but I like the setting, especially having Roys Peak as a backdrop...


I'm often struck how much it's like fly fishing: both pursuits encourage quiet travel and awareness of all around us.

Composition and light in particular in photography - I love the browny orange in this one...


The strongest motivator for us humans is intermittent reinforcement, and both the making of photos, and a good fish occasionally meet the criteria.

Every now and then we're truly in the right place at the right time [at least light wise - my feet were getting wet]...


I have found that what works for myself is to say "right I've got the light, now where is the subject?"

I've sort of used the reverse concept here though - I've always been fascinated by this messy example of farming and it's right beside the road...

Facing the Milky Way and myself

Sometimes on reflection I find I hold an idea or a concept for many years, then one day without much thought at all I act on it.

I decided one Monday morning recently to pack bivy gear and sleep out/see the sunrise from the top of the locally dominant Roys Peak [just across Roys Bay, which is the main bay and beach by the town centre of Wanaka]. I wanted also to descend east from the top and go over Mt Alpha and down into the Cardrona Valley to get home.

To begin the trip by walking up the normal tourist route I got dropped off mid afternoon [wishing to avoid the heat and conserve water].

The tramp up was uneventful. I did meet the last of the day trippers coming down but few were talkative. However the view compensated...


I did the last hour or two in the dark, and as I approached the top I contemplated whether to carry on onto the unknown ground, however I decided not to. So having found a flat area I dropped to my knees immediately striping off damp clothes that were next to my skin, while stuffing cold cuts of meat into my mouth so I'd be in the best possible shape to weather what was already a very cold night, followed by a biggish day.

I cooked my meal from the shelter of my bivy bag, and contemplated that trips this time of year require many hours in the sleeping bag to simply keep warm while waiting for daylight. And thus began a 12 hr. night.

I lay for many hours looking straight up at the Milky Way, with the Southern Cross almost directly overhead. It looked much darker than this shot from teara.govt.nz. The sheer numbers of stars is boggling, but what is incomprehensible to me is the space, the void, that they populate. I defy anyone to be anything but humble in it's presence...


Part of me felt very alone and even a little scared - the effect of staring into the heavens in the gaps between what could barely be described as sleep, made me wonder if the nothingness that is everything, was now the norm., and I'd never see or feel our sun again. The concept of the infinity above me made our daily view of the world seem totally insignificant.

Most times in a bivy I'd poke as little of myself out of my sleeping bag and make a brew, but not this morning. From 5 am onwards was something to be simply endured, and at first light I crammed all in my bag, and quickly made this blurry shot from the summit and headed east...


Sunrise minutes away...


At last some sun...


The first 10 minutes found me descending down a much steeper slope than I'd bargained for on frozen ground, that was as hard as the hobs... Sure I was stiff and cold, but I was awake enough to realise that I'd glossed over what may lie ahead. Namely all those rocks in the far distance that make up Mt Alpha...


This view down Waterfall Creek fascinated me, and I marvelled that while I was feeling apprensively alive, the everyday world down there had not quiet woken up yet...


The ridge was getting to feel decidedly lonely and alpine in nature - this had not been part of my expectations, especially it came as a shock being so close to town! A cold wind at my back was putting me off making a brew and breakfast too, but my not doing it may have had more to do with now being impatient and a little apprehensive to perhaps dig into myself for the goods to deal with whatever difficulties lay ahead...


Now in amongst the bluffs with my ever enduring companion, the route was about to unfold for us - it was to be on the totally unwelcoming shady aspects of Mt Alpha. The ground was rock-solid, but I was thankful there was no powder snow underfoot...


In the midst of the bluffs, there were a couple of sketchy spots, one in particular involved a careful few steps across a gully that feed straight onto some nasty slabs - one of those places best dealt with by taking a deep breath, honouring the presence of a drop-off but putting it aside, then employing decisiveness so that should the footing be misjudged momentum would save the day.

When all said and done though, what was really faced was ourselves, and the view in there of Mt Aspiring far away on the left, and the closer Roys Peak to the right was worth a little minor digging into the inner resources...


The self perceived difficulties and doubts are left behind as I reached easy ground and took my first sit-down breather and looked back...


A tele shot of the big A, Mt Aspiring...


A rock cairn and a plastic bird mark the entry of the descent for souls coming in the other direction...


The Clutha Valley in the distance...


My descent is looking easy as it curves south into the Cardrona Valley...


Looking back Aspiring is neatly framed by Mt Alpha and Roys Peak...


Still a long way to go - it's 10.30 and I finally brew up and breakfast using the last of the 4 lts of water I budgeted for the alpine flavoured section...


Unexpectedly the surroundings became quite interesting - this seeming ancient termination of a plateau with it's deeply incised gullies drops down into the head of Spotts Creek, and little did I realise that soon I'd be down there as well...


And down in the head of Spotts Creek... well the route was on a very dilapidated and steep 4wd track that had it's share of annoying vegetation, turns in directions away from where I wanted to be, and washouts with long un-called for grinds up hills. Somehow the urge to make photos dropped away from me, and besides my ride was waiting for me at 2 pm - it was time to turn up the speed!

Next day it was all but a wonderful memory as I caught up with Tigor for coffee and a muffin at Soul Food...


notes: The route for this trip is marked with poles. Mt. runners sometimes do it in short order much faster than my own ramblings. Trampers, the few I've spoken with comment it's a long way and don't seem to like it's drawn out nature. My total time travelling with photos and not inc. eating was 10.5 hours

One thing for sure is, like the DOC warning signs at both ends say: it's exposed to the weather [1500-1640 mts above sea level]. Personally should snow be lying in shady aspects of Mt Alpha that too would be a significant and time consuming hazard to be turned into a difficulty by applying technique.

Blast from the past favourites, and more on the idea of dams on the Clutha

It's been one of those weeks of reflection, and I've made no new landscape photos. Instead I'm settling into the moment after a few weeks of all sorts of varied upheavals: friends passing on, my son dealing with the astounding growth of mind, spirit and body associated with the teen years, and friends hitting the wall so-to-speak, on their journeys towards growth.

So since that's been the theme it seems fitting to delve into the past tonight and post and share some of my old time favourites.

Mt Aspiring probably taken from a flank of Roys Peak. That's Lake Wanaka's Glendhu Bay down on the left...


Mt Aspiring again - this time an unusual, more European Alps style of viewpoint, obtained from near the Albert Burn Saddle, Mt Aspiring National Park...


One of my most favourite of vehicles - a VW 1500 that I used for years, often like a Land Rover to capitalise on the rough roads on the early 1970s. Here photographed after a snowfall in the Danseys Pass area that links North Otago to Central Otago...


Naseby gold workings. A landscape photography dream in the 1960s, when it looked more like the surface of the moon, just before wilding pines turned it into the forest it is today. Naseby Forest as it is now known as, is a mecca for technical mountain biking, and is near the famous Central Otago Rail Trail...


The long wide and barren summit ridge of the nearby Pisa Range, host to the Snow Farm where I nordic ski...


Fence posts made from rocks on The Old Dunstan Road. A favourite photo I made back in the 1980s...


From near the Great Moss Swamp on The Old Dunstan Road, looking west on sunset right across most of Central Otago's block mountains...


And as mentioned in the blog subject, lastly some new links on the ill conceived idea to dam the Clutha River...

The fledgling Upper Clutha River Guardians website just went online... more>>

... and the Otago Daily Times website is sporting a poll, which will be well worth the time to fill in, as we know it's monitored by decision makers. There have been some very thoughtful posts opposing.. more>>

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...