South Island, New Zealand

It was late May, and the photography tour to the South Island, New Zealand,  that I had been waiting almost a year for finally rolled around. We flew out of Melbourne via Jetstar to Queenstown, NZ. 

The flight

The flight was only around half full, so we had room to spread out. We approached Queenstown in a blanket of low clouds and rain just over three hours later. The pilots must have done 100% of the approach on instruments because we didn’t see the ground until we were only about 100 feet above it. The landing was comfortable, though, and we were through customs and biosecurity and out the door within a short time. Into rain, snow-capped mountains, and cold. Very cold.

Welcome to Queenstown. Brrrrr
Queenstown

We quickly found a shuttle bus that drops you off at the hotels in Queenstown, and for the princely sum of $13NZ, we were shortly deposited at the door and to the warmth of our hotel for the night. Looking at the weather, we dined in the hotel restaurant that night while the rain came down outside. The following day we were up eager to be collected by our tour host Jarrod from Jarrod Castaing Photography; we flung back the curtains to greet the day.

Oh 🙁 this isn’t looking good

Funny thing about rain. When you start heading up the mountain in zero degrees and get to 700-800 feet above sea level, the rain becomes snow.

Coronet Peak overlooking Queenstown
Coronet Peak

After picking up everyone, we drove up to Coronet Peak. Roads were icy, the lookout under a heavy blanket of snow. We had prepared well with our thermals, windproof pants, and feather down coats, but I should have also packed a full face balaclava. The wind off the snow was icy, pretty, but icy. Driving from Coronet Peak to Lake Tekapo, we went through the usually brown plains of Lindis Pass. They also were blanketed in snow, and it was still coming down quite heavily as we drove through it.

Church Of The Good Shepherd

Arriving safely in Lake Tekapo, we drove straight to the Church Of The Good Shepherd, which was oddly deserted.  -1° Celcius and heavy snow falling go figure 😉

Church Of The Good Shepherd  Late afternoon

The plan was to do a sunset shoot at the church, but as getting one looked as likely as a heatwave, we all decided to relax in our rooms until dinner time. Fast forward to the following day, and the snow had stopped overnight, and the sky was clear. So we headed back to the church around 6 am, in the pitch dark, and set up the tripods to wait for the sun.

Church Of The Good Shepherd – next morning

After standing around in the cold and the dark, the image that ended up as my favourite was the one above. Taken about 5 mins before we left as the sun came up. Leaving the church, we drove to Lake Alexandrina. Gorgeous place. totally empty of tourists, shhhh, I don’t think they know about it yet 😉

Lake Alexandrina
Lake Alexandrina
Mount Cook

From Lake Alexandrina, we headed for breakfast and then off towards Mount Cook. Passing by Lake Pukaki, we stopped in for a quick shoot.    Lake Pukaki is a sparkling blue lake fed by the alpine glacier lakes. Sir Peter Jackson chose this part of the Southern Alps – the main divide stretching north-south the length of New Zealand’s South Island – as the setting for ‘Lake-town’ in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Lake Pukaki – location of Lake Town in The Hobbit
The Canterbury Plains
Canterbury Plains

Arriving at Mount Cook, we booked into the Hermitage and got ready for the planned afternoon shoot at the Hooker Valley. I had been looking forward to this part since I first signed on to the tour. But I had drastically overestimated my ability to walk 1.5hrs each way, uphill and down dale. And about 40 mins into the walk, we turned back and left the others to finish. It was mean (but rewarding) to hear later that the others also struggled with the walk, and the light was dreadful when they got there, and no one got their postcard shots.

Hooker Valley made it over the bridge and followed the trail out of sight before turning back.
Hooker Valley trail

The Hooker Valley trail leads to Hooker Lake. the valley is ruggedly beautiful, and I still haven’t seen the lake in real life, but I can live with that.

Hooker Valley
Aoraki Mount Cook -3754 metres
Wanaka Tree

The following day, the sun was out. As it rose and hit the snow-capped peaks, they turned a glorious golden yellow. Coming from a city that never sees snow, it was a sight to behold. After breakfast, we headed off again. Our destination was Lake Wanaka and that famous tree. We were scheduled to do a sunrise and sunset there. Sunset cooperated with us, but sunrise just didn’t happen. It was drizzling as we arrived for the sunrise, and heavily by the time we sought the refuge of the van.

Sunset a Lake Wanaka
The not so sunny sunrise

Leaving the lake, we headed into town for breakfast and dried our coats, hats, gloves, etc., on the grate around the fire while we ate breakfast. Following breakfast, we headed towards Milford Sound, going over the Crown Range, which had been closed to traffic a few days before due to heavy snowfalls.

Crown Range
Milford Sound

We passed down the Crown Range road, through Queenstown and headed towards Te Anau for lunch. Then the last 2-hour leg to our final and last night destination Milford Sound. Once we left Te Anau and got closer to Milford Sound, we lost mobile reception. The last 21 kms before the tunnel is an avalanche zone, and no stopping is allowed. like so many bridges in NZ, the tunnel is single lane – one car at a time – so we stopped to shoot some pics while we waited for our turn to enter

The Homer Tunnel

Envisaged by early settler Henry Homer in 1890, the tunnel was eventually started during the Great Depression in 1929.  Five men armed with picks and shovels hacked through to the solid bedrock of the Homer Saddle and brought in the heavy machinery to start drilling. Years later, the tunnel was complete when the workers finally emerged into the Cleddau Valley. Unfortunately, several men had died over the years from avalanches, including one avalanche proof hut in 1945.

The Homer tunnel

Sunset at Milford was beautiful. and a very accommodating Egret decided to sit in the foreground for the tourists 🙂 We were staying at Milford overnight. They really have a seller’s market, being a long way from anywhere and with limited accommodation options. Our accommodation was backpacker style, at prices dearer than our plush hotel in Queenstown!

Sunrise

As the sun came up, it lit up the snow-capped mountains. Again we were there from 6 am – and sunrise was about 8 am. This shot was taken at about 8.20 am. I wasn’t moving until I got the alpine glow on the mountains!

Milford Sound Sunrise
Back To Queenstown

After breakfast, we piled our gear back into the van to head back to Queenstown, stopping along the way at Mirror Lakes and Cascade Forest.

We arrived back in Queenstown late afternoon, picked up our hire car and headed to our hotel. Had a fabulous time. I learned lots and finally have my head around histograms lol I was left wondering a few things though New Zealand is a funny country.

  • why so many single-lane bridges?  didn’t they think cars or horse and carts might like to pass each other?  and if it dates to horse and cart…geez a couple of hundred years later and they haven’t widened them?
  • Things that we buy over the counter here in Australia you need a script for in New Zealand
  • For a country with more sheep than people, why are all the woolen products so expensive?
  • And possums… supposedly they are vermin to be eradicated.  Yet to buy anything made from possum fur – you could have bought a mink coat!
  • Petrol….$2.05 a litre!!???

As an infamous redhead said, please explain, lol

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© Bevlea Ross