Memories of New Zealand ( South Island )

[giantcanopy]

It is a very beautiful link zoossh.

Alas many a times most of us can only take a snap shot of whatever opportunities that may present to us during a holiday rather than having the privilege of time to wait patiently for that opportunity to grab that shot.

Here is another take atop the ride above. The bits of shadows caught my attention to grabbing this one.

#13

 

[giantcanopy]

# 14

A Black and White representation of # 13 which my wifey preferred

# 15

A group of kids having a time of their time in a cafe in the Glentanner Park, the place where we took our first Heli ride. Glentanner is a short 15-20 min drive from Mt Cook, with relatively easy straight roads. You would definitely have passed by the area if u went between Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo. Go there 15 mins earlier to check on wind and flight conditions, as well as a short briefing before the flight.

Our "Mountains High" package was changed to "Alpine Explorer" because of strong winds in Fox/Franz Josef area that grounded lots of flight in that loop for almost a week. The snow landing unfortunately was too brief to really setup tripod for panos at least for my trip, and would have been better off to do handheld panos.

 

[benruane]

@giantcanopy - ooh err, I'm feeling homesick! Thanks for sharing the NZ pics I especially like the sunrise silhouette/misty photos. They're great

Cheers, Ben

 

[giantcanopy]

@giantcanopy - ooh err, I'm feeling homesick! Thanks for sharing the NZ pics I especially like the sunrise silhouette/misty photos. They're great

Cheers, Ben

And I am lovesick in singapore after visiting your home country.

And another from the air

#16

 

[foxwagon]

Wonderful shots!
Did you manage to see the penguins and albatross at Dunedin & whales at Kaikora?

 

[giantcanopy]

Wonderful shots!
Did you manage to see the penguins and albatross at Dunedin & whales at Kaikora?

Thanks foxwagon!

Yes we joined the Elm wildlife tours at Dunedin and saw the yellow eyed penguins and the royal albatross ( 3 of them flying around on that day near the albatross observatory, apparently we were quite lucky ) Otago peninsula has some really treacherous tiny windy mountaneous roads which i will hate to drive, we were glad we signed up for a half day tour with comedic tour guides on the bus.

We saw one humpback and one sperm whale at Kaikoura when we signed up for the Kaikoura Whale Watch morning session. It was really packed because all the previous canceled boat trip passengers due to the Tsunami warning got pushed to our morning session.

ryan

 

[giantcanopy]

# 17

I took a shot of this old gentleman for the sole reason because he for some reason strikes me as a 78 y/o Carl Fredricksen look alike in the Disney movie UP. Maybe he was getting his helium balloons refueled at Mt Cook :bsmilie: Shot taken at Alpine Cafe in Hermitage Hotel, while we were having our early lunch.

# 18

Our shot stint on air - the leg back. Shadow of the heli over the left green planes. The far away cyan looking lake is probably Lake Pukaki. In my visual opinion, Lake Pukaki is even more cyan than Lake Tekapo. Both are glacial fed lakes, and the glacial flour from the abrasion of underlying rocks gives them the peculiar cyan-blue coloration.

 

[night86mare]

u can always do a little research about its safety. it may not be more dangerous or more expensive than some of your earlier trips like hoikkaido and this nz. i have seen some pictures from namibia by marsel van oosten, and they are totally your style.

eg.
http://images.google.com.sg/imgland...=isch:1&start=8#tbnid=wXj0_dRVUDew5M&start=12

nambia seems pretty safe, i see loads of photographers pouring there (particular in naturescapes). it is beautiful, with deadvlei, etc. i would love to go there someday.

ryan - these are good, but you are better than this!

 

[giantcanopy]

nambia seems pretty safe, i see loads of photographers pouring there (particular in naturescapes). it is beautiful, with deadvlei, etc. i would love to go there someday.

ryan - these are good, but you are better than this!

merci , WK i am not sure if i am worthy of that :bsmilie: Africa indeed provides a whole new different experience in photography, but not my other half's cup of tea when it comes to travelling ..

Here is a random shot taken from ard a corner of a street in Christchurch while we checked in. We never did went in to try their fare. Lots of speedtraps in Christchurch so please follow the speed limits ( cannot miss them , i mean the speed limit boards ). Our Tom Tom navigator keeps beeping ! Like most of the city centres, u can only go no more than 50km, and 60 to 70 km on the outlier , and 100km beyond. The 50km cap makes it easy for a greenhorn like me to maneuvre ard the city. NZ drivers are on the whole gracious fellas compared to singaporean drivers

Local food ( which is pretty much western ), chinese, thai, jap etc, an assortment much like singapore. We tried dining at a chinese restaurant opened by a China/HK couple on one of the evenings.

# 18

 

[giantcanopy]

An evening in Christchurch. The parallel lines were the tracks of the electric tram.
and no guessing who was behind the shadow.

# 19

 

[emlee]

so do you now think that Christchurch is most boring compared to the rest of cities in South Island?

 

[giantcanopy]

so do you now think that Christchurch is most boring compared to the rest of cities in South Island?

Kind of :bsmilie: nothing much there. A small city. It does not seem to be as happening as queenstown. Maybe we did not spend enough time in Christchurch. Of course the other parts of NZ offers much more scenic pleasures!

Here is the other land animal that can overrun the human population :
Sheeps - outnumber humans by 10:1. We got an opportunity to visit a farm, and there was no way we could catch them by running upclose..

# 20

 

[giantcanopy]

A little page that my wife showed me, along with the tv commercial ad of NZ.

http://www.newzealand.com/travel/about-nz/features/super-tvc/super-tvc_home.cfm

# 21

Punakaiki, a shot of one of the blowholes of the pancake rocks.
While it was quite a bit of drive from Fox glacier to Punakaki, we managed to reach ard the time of high tide ( we reached at 12 noon, highest tide was 1130am that day ). If possible do check out the tides before visiting And give urself more time to wait and wait for that picture perfect shot. With the afternoon sun, a huge spray from the blowhole can create a tiny rainbow which i unfortunately failed to capture. Beware cause they can go much higher and wet the audience!

 

[giantcanopy]

# 22

Here is the blowhole in color. The brownish concavity in the middle is where the formation leads the incoming rushing waves into an upward vertical jet. The layered rocks are limestone formations. There is supposedly 2 cafes there, do not expect any full lunch / dinner meals. We made do with cheese cake, sandwiches, muffins, and fruit juice for lunch that day.

The blowhole area shown is a short 5-10 min walk from where u can park the car. If u got time u can explore the Punakaki area in a little more detail since there are other walking trails around. We touched and go from Punakaiki to Kaikoura.

* there are actually accommodations ard Punakaiki area but I am not sure if there would be anything else much to do if u stayed there.

 

[Numnumball]

Hi Ryan,

Very nice pics, keep them coming.. Would actually love to plan a NZ trip earlier next yr

 

[giantcanopy]

Hi Ryan,

Very nice pics, keep them coming.. Would actually love to plan a NZ trip earlier next yr

U shld it is lovely. there are so many times i just spaced out looking at the scenery, but having nil inking how to take a shot of it. But do make sure u r not the only person driving else can be a little tiring. For most of us we dun usually do 4 - 8 hr drives in a day in Singapore.

# 23

A shot of the waves hitting on the walls of the surge pool in punakaiki.
It was like thunder every time the huge waves enter. I can almost feel the vibrational impact going right into the substance of my lungs :bsmilie:

 

[giantcanopy]

so do you now think that Christchurch is most boring compared to the rest of cities in South Island?

Oh one more thing. Christchurch got some plate licking good food too!

# 24

 

[two200]

Oh one more thing. Christchurch got some plate licking good food too!

# 24

Nice composition :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Scenery in NZ is really nice. I was there years back with tour group. Would be better if self drive cos there are so many places with photo opportunity along the way. Although the towns are about 2-3hrs distance, there is really nothing much to do except to appreciate the scenery. And you will miss our local food after a day or two.

Thanks for sharing giantcanopy. Brings back nice memories... like you we spent our honeymoon there

 

[giantcanopy]

Nice composition :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Scenery in NZ is really nice. I was there years back with tour group. Would be better if self drive cos there are so many places with photo opportunity along the way. Although the towns are about 2-3hrs distance, there is really nothing much to do except to appreciate the scenery. And you will miss our local food after a day or two.

Thanks for sharing giantcanopy. Brings back nice memories... like you we spent our honeymoon there

Nice. what can i say, but u made a great choice for a honeymoon holiday :bsmilie: i am still having blues from back in singapore. Maybe nxt time i go north island in a campervan..

Actually we didn't miss local food when we were there. Food there is pretty much a cocktail of cosmopolitan stuffs like chinese, japanese, korean, thai food etc etc and the local fare which is largely ... literally fish and chips. Some of the chinese food were pretty good actually. Of course local delights like oyster egg, kway tiao, carrot cake u cannot find la.

ryan

 

[ahbian]

# 6

thanks billy. gotta revise ur tutorial on shooting stars u know ..


#11.

So many wonderful shots, these two are quite magical. Just a guide, you mentioned 1 min exposure for the 1st one, how high of an ISO did you use?