road trip – Sandy's Views

Central South Island

September 30, 2018October 2, 2018Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged awesome, Driving, lakes, landscape, landscapephotography, mountains, nature, New Zealand, photography, road trip, travel8 Comments

We decided to take advantage of some cheap flights to the South Island and have a wee roadie. Just four days. This is the sort of thing you can see on a short road trip in New Zealand.

Four easy days driving in the Central South Island. Christchurch, over Arthurs Pass to the West Coast. Night near Hokitika. South via Franz Josef and Fox Glacier, night at Fox for the Lake Matheson early morning shot. South to Haast Pass drive through Mackenzie Country for a night at Twizel. Aoraki/Mt Cook national park is only a short drive from Twizel. On to Geraldine for a night then easy drive to Christchurch and home. Basically this is a reasonably low cost long weekend away. Thursday through to Monday. We are very lucky to live here in New Zealand. Lucky As!

Arthurs Straight — Heading for Arthurs Pass

Lake Matheson Mirror Lake — Probably the best morning conditions ever at Lake Matheson.

Road through Mackenzie — Mackenzie Country

Seriously, the weather though!

Costs? About $200 for two return flights, Palmerston North to Christchurch. Rental car was about $250, Plus about $125 per night on average, motels and AirBnB. Basically about NZD $1000 plus food and drink, Pretty good I reckon.

Temporary Change Of Gear

October 21, 2017Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged landscapephotography, landscapes, mountains, nature, New Zealand, photography, reflection, road trip, sunset, travel, travelphotography, wilderness7 Comments

I decided to go light, I decided I was carrying around too much heavy expensive gear for someone who isn’t a professional Photographer. I wanted to try Digital Mirrorless Technology. I’m currently enjoying the light weight, little bit hipster, retro’ish Olympus OM-D E-M5 MkII which is a hell of a mouthful for a camera name. I only have one multi purpose lens on the front which is an Olympus 14-150mm. I have to admit I’m not totally in love with this camera. I’m not as happy with the image quality as I had hoped I would be and I find it a bit small in my hands. It’s pretty much lacking in every department for what I want to achieve photographically. But it is light. I’ll be going back to a bigger DSLR set up when I can afford it. That said, here is a selection of images I’ve taken in the last couple of months with the little Olympus.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Waikato somewhere, early.

I don’t think it’s just a case of a poor workman blaming his tools, maybe it is though. I still want to go back to a full size DSLR, or mirrorless. This nice little camera is just too little for me.

‘The Big Smoke’. Auckland

November 9, 2016March 12, 2017Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged art, cityscape, holiday, New Zealand, photography, road trip, sky., travel, urban1 Comment

In New Zealand, as I believe they do in some other places, we refer to the big city as ‘The Big Smoke’. Auckland is the nearest thing we have to a big city, however it’s not very big and is more like a collection of villages. The population of Auckland is about 1.4 Million which is a big chunk of our total population of around 4.4 Million. New Zealand is quite empty of people. I have attempted to convey that by photographing some parts the inner city of our largest city. The Auckland CBD between 8.30 and 9.30am on a Saturday morning. Plus some other bits during the day.

vulcan-lane — Belgian beer at the Occidental, the pub was built by an American sailor.

wynyard-1 — Feeding winged rats at Wynard Quarter.

queeb-street — Queen Street, Auckland City.

esplanade — The Esplanade, I once won a surfing competition in there.

mt-eden-road — Mt Eden Road, Mt Eden Village, 8:30am, Sunday Morning.

up-mt-eden-road — Looking the other way, towards the city

boat-sheds — Boat sheds beside Tamaki Drive.

city-cloud — City Skyline, from Stanley Bay.

paraitai — The view rich people on Paraitai Drive have.

Auckland, it’s not always what you think.

Wellington Bays

December 20, 2015February 14, 2017Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged coast, landscapes, New Zealand, photography, road trip, seascape, seaside, travel, Wellington3 Comments

Well not all the bays, the bays out past the Airport. Wellington is the Capital City of New Zealand. It’s perched in a little bay with all the houses nestled into a load of hills behind it. Most people think it’s quite a pretty little city. I was visiting a friend but was early, so decided to take the scenic route round the Miramar Peninsula rather than simply drive across town. I’m pleased I did because look!