Been down in Dunedin for some eye stuff and it reminded me of this shot from the coast down there… and that this is another one of those links between Scotland and NZ. The name Dunedin comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh…
Settling back into the studio after essentially being on the road since May is great but also filled with realisation of how stuff somehow needs to be attended to… Windows updates. Cleaning (somehow!), life admin… but then the fun creative stuff can begin again. Yay! Big plans are a cookin’.
Queenstown, I am in you…
Next up on the 3 day trek home… Auckland. Which reminds me that I really need to go there and spend a good week or so exploring. I’m there often but 99% of the time it’s basically a hub to use for exit/entry to NZ. So this is about the only image I’ve processed from there. That needs to change!
One of the things that interested me about going to Scotland is how it might compare/contrast with New Zealand. Here’s just one fun little example of a tie between the two places. Those of you who are long time visitors of the blog will be familiar with some of my images from Glenorchy down towards the end of Lake Wakatipu. Well, turns out there is a Glen Orchy in Scotland and within that is a cool set of waterfalls where the River Orchy has worn the rock into all sorts of fascinating shapes and mini canyons like the ones below.
I was lucky enough to stay on St. Claire’s beach in Dunedin for a few nights. Each morning had a different sort of sunrise. This was one of my favorites. I was out there pretty much all the time, with my camera fully loaded and ready to go! Beautiful mornings like this are so serene, but my serenity is often a bit challenged with trying to get as many interesting photos as possible. Another challenge is getting the quadcopter ready as well. If it’s a great morning like this, then I want to get more than just ground-based photos.
Also, fun fact, Baldwin Street in Dunedin is the steepest residential street in the world… one section is so steep it had to be made from concrete as normal road surfaces on a sweltering day would become unstable and start to melt down the hill.
Choppy landed here by this remote lake for a bit while I jumped out to take photos. It was so fun, and I felt lucky there was a bit of snow up high to give some more colors to the scene.
This is my friend Bel doing a bit of impromptu yoga on the Hobbiton Movie Set on the old stone bridge before the watermill. That Bel, doesn’t matter where you are with her there is at least one point in every day where you’ll randomly turn around to find her in some crazy yoga situation!
After a while shooting hobbit holes, you’d think I’d become a little tired of the subject-matter, but I never have! Each little hobbit hole (there are 44 I think at Hobbiton?) is perfectly adorned and unique in its own way. Plus, they all change a little with every season so that adds some nice variety whenever I go there.
In yesterday’s post I mentioned the changes in the landscape color as autumn rolls in here in Queenstown and that the sunsets can really start to go up a gear. That photo was taken one March and the greens there are pretty much replaced by the middle of April every year. It happens fast but it’s epic, especially in the trees around Arrowtown!
