Part 5 - Late June, Early July, 2024 – Queenstown, Doubtful Sound, Wanaka, New Zealand – Photography Workshop

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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

Lake Wakatipu

Our last day in Australia starts with breakfast and an early ride to the airport for our flight to Queenstown, on the South Island of New Zealand.  We find out our flight is cancelled, instead of an Air New Zealand flight we are taking a Virgin Australia flight, arriving at 545 PM.  With no meal or snack.  The hotel is a 30-minute ride from the airport.  Another long day.

Once registered, and in our room, we are able to relax with a beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu from our room.  We later learn that the mountains on the far shore, formed backdrop for several scenes in the Lord of the Rings movies.

We also learn that the hotel has washers and dryers.  After dinner we do laundry, to be ready for our photography workshop.  Having to set alarms and climb steps; to take care of laundry, I am reminded of the convenience of being able to do laundry in our house.  As regular practice at home, we empty the dryer filters.  I assumed others do the same.  After the end of the first cycle of drying I discover our clothes are still damp.  Pulling out the densely clogged filter explains the problem.  Another gentleman was looking at his almost dried clothes after I found the filter issue.  I inform him of our problem, extracting the filter on his dryer we find it is just as clogged.  Note to self – Check dryer filters before drying clothes.

We wake up for buffet breakfast before catching up with one of the other workshop attendees.  We trade stories, then we walk, or rather hike, up a steep hill to a small grocery store, shopping for snacks.

Skipper's Canyon

We learn of several different tours of the area, then reserve spots with Nomad Safaris for the afternoon tour of Skipper’s Canyon.  A quick lunch, and we are on our way.  It turns out we are the only two on this tour.  We meet our driver and tour guide, David from Colombia.  He is cordial, informing us of the history of Skipper’s Canyon and more scene locations from LOTR movies.

Mining started in the 1860’s through 1910’s.  Now, this is primarily a tourist area with camp sites, tours, and mountain biking.  Arriving back at the hotel, we meet several of our group including Gary and Don our guides/instructors for the workshop, which commences tomorrow afternoon.

Near Queenstown

The next morning, we are up early for breakfast and a walk to town.  The road is steep to the shore of the lake, we follow it into town. Cool and cloudy, we are wearing thermal underwear, heavy coats, gloves and hats.  We just passed the official first day of winter, we are ready.  Finding an ATM, we now have cash in hand.  We like the exchange rate, one dollar NZ for 65 cents US.  Before returning, we stop at another grocery store picking up some snacks and fruit for our adventures.  We find a short, picturesque trail on our return, avoiding walking the sidewalk alongside the street. 

Lake Wakatipu at sunset

We meet everyone on the workshop including Steve our guide, driver, and do-everything guy.  There are 11 of us including Steve, Don and Gary.  The meeting is the kickoff for our next 10-days.  We introduce ourselves, then we learn the general plan and itinerary.  Everything is etched in sand with weather driving all the decisions.   After our meeting we assemble our camera gear for a 30-minute ride to the first location, followed by another spot to catch sunset and a third spot for the Milky Way.  Again, weather permitting.  The van easily stores our camera gear and the 11 of us.

At our first stop we identify a Crested Grebe, many of us are excited, knowing that they are rarely seen.  Nicida and I are not birders, so we only appreciate what we see from their excitement.  Next, on to another location for sunset, still along Lake Wakatipu.  The water on this large lake is almost smooth as glass, giving us wonderful reflections.  Low clouds obscure the sun disappearing behind the low mountains.  We hang around with the hopes that those same clouds will turn magnificent colors as evening approaches.  We are not disappointed.  Even Don and Gary who have been conducting this workshop for the past eight years are excited by the sunset.  Finally, as the colors mute and turn gray we return to the hotel.  No Milky Way tonight.  The beautiful clouds of sunset are not our friends when photographing the Milky Way.  We are all wearing smiles on the ride back, tomorrow, we bring all our bags to the van by 7 AM.  We are moving on to another hotel.

Our thermal layers are a permanent part of our wardrobe considering we will face 40’s with fog, then later we will have clouds.  By 720 we are on our way.  Even with all our luggage and camera laden backpacks, we easily fit in the 16-passenger van.  We stop to shoot a sunrise over the lake, but low clouds make us shift our compositions to more interesting subjects.  The clouds clear for a moment or two lighting up the shore on the far side of the lake, but it returns to subtle tones as the clouds move back in.

Continuing, towards Glenorchy, stopping for coffee, hot chocolate and pastries before heading on to Paradise Valley.  We pass by forests of dense, gnarly trees that look like they are from Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings.  A few minutes later, Steve informs us that this area was used in the movies, for the forest.  We stop, many of us wander into the dark forest looking for images conveying that feeling.

Lake Te Anau

The South Island is quite remote, with precipitous mountains surrounding us.  Major roads are few.  In order for us to go from one location to another we must pass by Queenstown.  This is the case each time we travel from North to South, East to West.  Today we pass through Queenstown going from Glenorchy to Te Anau. On the way we drive through a thick bank of fog for several minutes before emerging into sunlit fields.  Our next stop is Lake Te Anau hoping for a sunset.  The clear sky above the mountains makes for boring images so we concentrate on the low clouds speeding by the mountain foothills.  Tomorrow we are heading to Doubtful Sound.

Doubtful Sound

We must take a circuitous route to Doubtful Sound.  We catch a bus, which takes us to Lake Manapouri, for a 40-minute boat.  There we ride another bus to the Doubtful Sound launch point.  All of this is within Fiordland National Park, the largest in New Zealand.

Doubtful Sound

Our bus driver/guide takes us through the dense forest blanketing high canyon walls.  Beech trees tower over us as we drive over a pass leading to Doubtful Sound.  Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings, saw Ents in these trees, an old race of creatures from Middle earth.  They come to life in the Lord of the Rings.  Descending to the sound we are surrounded by 3,000 – 4,000’ mountains.  The ones lining the sound steeply fall into the water, continuing who knows how many more feet to the bottom.

Various stages of
Tree Falls

Cruising down the Sound we spot small, random spots of bare granite on the canyon walls.  Tree Falls – heavy rains and winds blow interwoven trees loose from the granite where they topple down the rock cliffs.  Little to no rock is disturbed by tree falls.  We notice different stages of tree falls, bare granite, new growth trees, mid-life trees, depending on when they happened.  Continuing on, we spot a small group of swimming seals.  Blue Penguins and Albatross also call this area home.  Nearing the Tasman Sea seals are abundant, their rookeries occupy the small islands dotting the transition from Sound to sea.

Few waterfalls are flowing, there has been no moisture over the past few days.  Several inches of precipitation are expected starting tomorrow.  Returning back into the sound a pod of dolphins finds us, then accompanies us.  Some of us head to the back of the boat watching for dolphins swimming in our wake.  They weave back and forth in the wake occasionally jumping out of the water.  Swimming in the wake is their version of having fun.

Far back into the Sound we experience the Sound of Silence.  The crew requests that we stop everything; texting, talking, photographing, to experience the silence.  The crew shuts everything down – the world goes quiet.  At first it is hard to notice the difference.  As my ears become accustomed to the quiet; I hear, waves lapping on the shore, birds singing, it is quite the experience.  All too soon the silence is broken by the diesel engines turning over followed by passengers talking about the silence.

On the return boat ride back to the bus, we sit down with another passenger, from Germany, who is interested in how we managed to retire early.  We pass on our experience; save money, live below your means, but we also urge him not to give up his present life to retire early.  We say our goodbyes wishing him well, hoping he will be able to retire early.  Back in town a few of us find a restaurant, enjoying lamb and venison for dinner.

Swimming in our wake

The weather forecast was right, the next morning we wake up to rain.  Puddles are large, so we know a lot fell overnight.  The van gets packed up in spite of the falling raindrops.  We head off on the road towards Milford Sound for another photo opportunity.  Rain continues to fall as we arrive.  Anticipating the rain, we have already put on rain jackets, rain pants, backpack rain covers, and camera rain covers.  A bit of rain isn’t going to stop us.  Clouds obscure the snow-covered mountain tops.  We compose our images tree branches in the foreground to frame those mountains.

Wanaka

Moon over Wanaka Tree

Back in the van we reverse our direction, heading back towards Queenstown on our way to Wanaka.  The rain that had cleared approaching Queenstown has reappeared, continuing for the rest of the evening.  We are here to photograph the famous Wanaka tree.  It is quite different from all the photos I have seen of it.  We find it surrounded by land, not much, but noticeable.  All the images I have ever seen of the Wanaka Tree have it surrounded by water.  Recently, the lake level has receded to the point that the tree, normally seen with wonderful reflections, now is landlocked.  This actually gives us new opportunities.  We are able to see it from different perspectives rather than just along the shore, at the traditional locations.  Our group, in unison, mount our cameras on our tripods then patiently wait for the other tourists to end their posing session at the tree, before we move in for our photography session.  Once we are finished at the first location, we move in, on cue for closer, different compositions.  After sunset, we pack up heading to the hotel to register, then dinner.  You can tell what our priorities are.

Sunrise

We head to our rooms, then to the dining room for dinner.  Early tomorrow we will make the 10-minute walk back to the Wanaka tree for a sunrise shooting session.

Waking early the next morning, we hike back to the Wanaka tree for sunrise. It’s dark, dark enough we need our flashlights.  One of our group is already setup and shooting.  We join in, not having to jockey for position for our ‘iconic’ images.  Soon, the rest of the group arrives.  The half-moon, high in the sky, pokes out between the clouds.  Everyone satisfied, we head off for breakfast, then a ride to Fox Glacier.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark