Thursday, April 30, 2015

Leaving Queenstown for Franz Josef today.

For some reason I couldn’t sleep at the Rees Hotel last night. It has been my favorite hotel and for those that have traveled with me, I even liked the pillows and walked barefoot on the floor!!

I was up at 6am so I decided to have breakfast at the hotel. Vanilla pancakes with caramelised banana and bacon with orange juice for $28.00 NZ. I needed to have that with the long bus ride ahead of me for the day. The desk clerk brought my luggage all the way up the driveway of the Reese and across the street to the bus stop! No easy feat! Our bus came on time and off we go at 8 am.

The bus driver was very informative. When we would pass something historical he would tell us a story or just be silly. We stopped every hour for a 10 minute break. Some of the places we stop are amusing. They are places where there are pubic toilets (as they say) or a small café to get a snack or piece of fruit. This photo is from a salmon farm. I kept my eye on that white heron. He was getting closer and closer but no catch while I was watching him.

When we reached the western coastline, he stopped at a lookout for the chance to take some photos. The coast in that section is much like Oregon with the large rock like structures rising up from the shallow waves. There is a lot of driftwood covering the area by the dunes and people on the beach appear to be picking up trash.

The drive here was very different than Dunedin to Queenstown. There we saw rolling hills and a lot

of sheep. Here there are more streams, rivers and sharp mountain peaks. Every flat area has a name. I did pass a stream called “Roaring Meg”. Sound like anyone we know?

Our arrival in Franz Josef was early at 4:00PM. I must say the view of the glaciers, Fox and Franz Josef was amazing. I can’t believe they do not melt in the sun! Tomorrow I will see it up close for myself as I am going on my first helicopter ride and glacier walk.

After the arrival at Punga Gorda hotel, I deposit all my stuff, grab the camera and tripod and get a few shots of the small street and glacier in the background. Dinner at The Landing was fun as I joined to other Americans at their table. Of course the wife has a son who graduated from Downingtown! They live in Boston now and are here for 3 weeks also. They just completed the tour I am taking tomorrow and gave me many tips, so now I am …cough cough….prepared to walk on a glacier. Dinner was chicken satay, rice and a small salad with a Summit ale.

I stopped in the Wildlife Centre for Kiwis across the street but the ticket was $35 just to see some kiwis in cages – not sure I want to see them in that environment. They are nocturnal so it is difficult to spot them running wild.  There is one guy who has transmitters on some so he can run tours and find them in the dark. The poor kiwis! I think I’ll go to the zoo.

Not much else happened today since it was a long drive. I’m sure I’ll have some interesting details tomorrow.

Leaving Dunedin, Back to Queenstown

Taken with iPhone

Up early at 8:00 am not to anxious to get going today. Off to Cadbury for morning snack of hot chocolate and a sweet bun. Check out of room at 11 and sit in the very small lobby on the internet until my taxi comes at 1:00 for the 1:40 bus back to QT and the Rees for one night. Taxi is $6.50 to the bus station. My travel agent booked and paid for my travel, hotels and tours. So I just need to show up!  

Most of the way back I slept on the bus. The rolling hills here remind me a bit of the Poconos. Nothing too high, just green and sheep!

I was greeted at the Rees by Heidi! She was still here after her helio flight was cancelled because of the weather. She just sat in the lobby all day editing photos, and she had some good ones too.  I ventured off to town for a small dinner since I'll be all day on the bus to Franz Josef tomorrow. I went to Speight's brew house so I could try the beer too. Unfortunately they no longer brew the wheat as it is out of season. So I'm settled on a summer ale that is light and tasty. The tv has a rugby game playing and I still don't get the rules. I have seen several games and might have to ask someone about the game.

Everywhere in NZ serves water and it is much better than I thought it would be because it is spring water. My meal is called chicken parcels. Chicken, peaches, bacon and cheese in phylo with aioli and sliced almonds and crunchy potatoes. It was delicious. I have not had a bad meal here but there is still time! This is the second time I have had chicken and peaches in a sauce and I've got to try and make it at home. The other time was at Giordano's in Kennett.

I need to rearrange my suitcases to get everything back in place. That is tonight's mission. 

A boring day coming up tomorrow with a bus ride from QT to Franz Josef. Leaving here at 8:00am and arriving at 4:30. I hope we stop at some good fruit stands on the way.

Good night all.

More Photos From Dunedin

They are EVERYWHERE! This one however looked me right in the eye. Usually they go quickly away from people.

This is the view down to the beach were we walked to see the penguins and sea lions.

On the way to the beach, we passed several ponds full of birds and wildlife. This kingfisher was just waiting for his lunch.

I saw a small ceramic of this Pukeko in a gift shop an bought it hoping I would see one in the brush. Sure enough, he was walking along with his mate on one side of the road and a huge hawk was on th other side hunting for something in the grass. Score!

Here is the beach and the lighting during our walk for sea lions. It really was beautiful.

Going to the penguins, we passed many trees that were shaped like this because of the high winds on the bluff.

Black swans were not native to New Zealand, but were plentiful in the ponds.

Those of you who go out to eat with me know I love different types of pizza. This was at a local pub and had carmalized pineapple and ham with chunky potatoes. I think they were just deep fried, but not shaped like fries. Some good spice on there as well. Lunch $12 NZ. Good deal here.

Nature Time!

I always thought this was going to be a boat to some remote location, but I was wrong. It was a van ride to the peninsula point off Dunedin.

We left the hotel in town at 1:30 and arrived at the Royal Albatross Centre at 2:30. The drove for about an hour to the penguins. It was a full day of adventure as we returned after dark at 7PM to the hotel.













Some of us had paid for a close encounter with the birds, so off we go hiking up hill about 100 yards to the viewing tower.  From there we observed about 6 immature birds still sitting on their nests. They were almost full grown, but will not fly until about 8 months old. They are pure white. Every once in a while an adult flies in to feed their baby. The infant taps on the beak of the parent to show they are hungry and the parent feeds them what they have retrieved from the sea.

Here comes the parent in for a landing. What makes these birds unique is their wingspan and their landing technique.


From the viewing tower, we can see scores of cormorant adults and infants scurrying about, but their nests are all empty and appear to be made of mud like substance. Some fly about during our visit.

This is the view back to Dunedin Harbour from the Royal Albatross Centre.

We have just completed our walk to see the yellow eye penguins, all 8 of them.  We had to detour to the grassy dunes because a large sea lion was guarding a lone female.  While walking in the grass we came upon several sea lions sleeping and resting. They can be aggressive, but not today.

We spotted penguins hopping up this hill to their evening nests. It must take forever and they didn't make much progress while we were watching. The yellow eye penguin does not really have a yellow eye but a yellow eye stripe. 

This pic really does not show the steep the walk up and down to the beach.

The walk to the van was exhausting because this brace in my shoe does not bend properly for hill climbing and I'm out of shape. At the top of the hill everyone is looking at the flat tire!! We are in the farthest Eastern part of Dunedin peninsula with no phone or cell reception  and our guide does not know how to change it or where all the equipment is located !! Finally, a Japanese guy helped him get it changed and off we went in the dark. 

By saying these roads are winding and narrow does not really describe the trip. 

Overall it was an exhausting day of winding narrow roads and lots of up and downhill hiking. I fell asleep at 9:30

More Edited Photos

This cottage belongs to a friend of Trey's. It looks like someone transplanted it right from the Cotswolds. This and the chair are my 2 favorite photos so far. Actually the chair was at the lower left of this photo overlooking Lake Hayes.

I just wanted to try something in B&W and this seemed like a good choice. What do you think?

Yellow Tree in QT

This is "Grassy Valley" overlooking QT at 6:45am. Every 10 minutes the sun would change and so would the light in the valley. The Remarkables are to the left.

Late morning we turned and shot towards the sun and I'm not sure how I like this either. I do like the green way out in the valley and the light across the tops of the distant mountains.

Monday in Dunedin

Dunedin is named after Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a 4 hour bus ride across the South Island with several stops. The first stop was at a small side of the road fruit stand that had public rest rooms, fruit, nuts and dried fruit selections. I picked an apple, and it was delicious and juicy. We made 2 other stops for rest rooms as well. The bad news here is that my internet was not working, so therefore Google maps was not available and I didn’t know how to find my hotel. Fortunately I took a screen shot of the reservation and street name. I asked the fellow next to me on the bus and he could no get my internet working either – I am going to be lost without it. But he did know where the street was and pointed me to Cumberland St. Except I walked 10 blocks dragging my small suitcase and my 20lb backpack of camera goodies.

I passed some cool places like the University of Ontago, a museum that has a butterfly exhibit and aviary. Many places were closed because of ANZAC Day holiday. You may have seen this remembrance on tv involving honoring soldiers from New Zealand, Australia at Gallipoli. It is much like our Veteran’s Day. I turned around and walked back toward the bus stop and could see the hotel a block from my original point. I did get lots of steps registered on my FitBit however.

Across the street is a factory tour. View the photos and see if you can guess where I am.

If you didn't guess Cadbury, then look closely at these 2 cars. These two antique cars were actually used by the company to deliver chocolate at the turn of the century. The products produced here are for New Zealand and Australia consumption. Of course I had to purchase my favorite, Cadbury fingers!

Now I am starving since I didn’t really eat breakfast except for 2 granola bars and an apple. I found several restaurants open at the Octogon (center of town) and take a chance on Angus sliders with pear chutney with a side of local beer. Nice choice and I am delighted and full.

It has rained all day, I want to get everything ready for the nature adventure tomorrow. So back to the room and plan. I had to pay for internet usage and my phone is wonky. Not sure what is going on there. I really depend on it for directions.

This hotel actually has better tv than Rees in Queenstown.

Wildlife adventures tomorrow in Dunedin!

Arrowtown Evenng

On Wednesday we ventured to an old town called Arrowtown. Trey led us around to some nice spots and I must say it was nice to do some shots that were not landscape.

This photo was edited with Lightroom, Photomatix and Photoshop. It is actually a combination of three images that were merges and cleaned up. For example, there was a logo on the black car that I erased, in front of the car there were 3 more parked there that I erased. The leaves on the ground and the trees are a combination of two images that were edited to enhance the colors. This is basically what I learned to do during this week with Trey Ratcliff in Queenstown. Totally worth it!

Following this shoot, Trey rented the cinema to share his images on a very large screen. I would love to see some of mine on a screen that large!! Of course there was more wine!

Sunday Funday

It is 7:30 am NZ time and my Funyak/speedboad cruise is cancelled because of the pouring rain. I am secretly glad because I am exhausted and at the moment disorganized for the rest of the journey. This will give me time to repack and plan ahead. Going to edit some more photos today. I need to delete some stuff from my computer as I have filled it up!

The shuttle was going to town at 11:00 so I decided to go and do some Christmas shopping. Good luck for some family members - I found your gift today!! Not telling who. Let me just say that wool may not be in your stocking as scarves are from $45 - $109.Since 4 of you live in Florida it is senseless to get you wool anyway!  Sweaters, capes and hats are much more. The funny thing is that the Merlino wool is blended with possum. Seriously? It looks creepy, but all I can think of is a possum patrol picking up road kill for sweater making material...yuck. The scarves are actually quite smooth like cashmere.

For lunch I found a recommended place along the waterfront called Ivy & Lola's Kitched. This is pork with coleslaw and fresh pita. Delicious.

Whoops, wrong turn!!!!


The name of a restaurant.



















After an afternoon in the lobby with Heidi and Lisa we decide to go out to dinner in town. We end up at Madam Woo's Malaysian Street Food. I think Heidi fell asleep.

This is a photo of our chicken satay. In addition to this we had a Jasmine rice, port ribs and perick chicken with toasted cocoanut roti cani style. That means chicken with jalapano and red peppers, onions peanut sauce served in a soft pancake that was like "a party in my mouth".  All of this was only $52 which I think was pretty good for 2 people. No lamb tonight.

Now I really have to pack for tomorrow morning. I am leaving QT for Dunedin which is about 4 hours on the bus to the East. I am looking forward to my penguin encounter and seeing the albatross colony. Since I will return to the Reese in 2 days, they are keeping my large suitcase in storage so I don't have to haul it around Dunedin.

More adventures tomorrow! Thanks for all the comments you have sent me on my Facebook page. I appreciate each of you who are following my journey.

Saturday Evening in QT

Seems like this day will not end. I got a message from three of my travel friends to join them for dinner. How nice that Curtis has a car and we don't have to be on a bus again! Since Curtis lives here now (originally from Texas and is Trey's trip coordinator) he knew all the right places to go in the evening. The town is packed and we slip in to a parking spot across from a Hostel. Never been to one and it was quite crowded and noisy. This is an adventure location so I can see why so many people are in this place.

Our first stop was The Cow and old sheep shearing shed made of some local slate like building materials.  We shared a table with 2 people from Denmark and had fantastic garlic bread, a mess of veggies on a pizza in this quaint building. I was a cross between the bar in the Indiana Jones movie with Karen Black that burnt to the ground at the start of the movie and small English Pub. Jackie Evans you would have fit in just right here! It was so dark I didn't really know what I was eating on the pizza. No matter,it was great.

Sorry these are a bit dark and smuggy but the light was low and these are from my iPhone. Smooth wine, pizza and delicious garlic bread. I could see the chef paint garlic butter with chopped garlic over the top then sprinkle with parsley. I will do this at home for sure.

This beer bottle looked huge! It was only 17 ounces but seemed so much larger. This location was the Eichart Hotel, which is the oldest and most expensive hotel in QT. Located right on the lake it only has 10 elegantly designed rooms for rent.

We returned back to the Reese Hotel around 10:00, which was early for this week!

A Few Edited Photos

Cute bridge at Queenstown Gardens

Fields of Brandemoor

In the nature area at Glenorchy

Star Photo with windy skies blowing the clouds.

Saturday, April 25

I am a bit hung over from drinking 3 glasses of wine. Well I think it was only three. The servers kept our glass from being empty so it is hard to determine exactly how much we had. So nice to sleep in to 8:30am. My phone is buzzing from the other participants who got up early and photographed the sunrise. Today my motto is: the sun will come up tomorrow. By the time I get to breakfast, there are only two guys left eating so I join them. Gradually one by one others arrive quite sleepy and craving coffee.

Some of them got up and shot the sunrise photo from their room deck. We chat and promise to stay in touch, but I don't know who will. I hope I will get to Hawaii within the next two years and I will catch up with Heidi. She works for Hilton Garden Vacation Club and is a manager of the sales team at Waikoloa Village on the big island, one place I would like to visit. Most of the week my editing partner was Jackie Evans from England.  She lives near the boarder of Wales and would like me to visit and we would see and photograph the castles. Sounds like fun. Sara Caldwell is at least my age and is a pilot for NZAir. She is a kiwi and wants to catch up for lunch or dinner when I get to Auckland next week. Nice people. Several others made arrangements as well.

As I was going to breakfast I passed Jai, from San Francisco. She, Delaney (aged 16) and Heidi from Hawaii were going sky diving, but it was cancelled due to poor visibility. Brave ladies indeed. Jai decided she was going bungie jumping instead. Several others went directly to the airport to fly home and then some went off on other adventures here such as driving to Milford Sound. I decided to go into Queenstown and walk around for a bit. There are a lot of shops and places to lunch along the waterfront. Crossing he street I heard someone call to me and it was the fellow who was our bus driver! He helped me many times with equipment on and off the bus as well as gave some suggestions for the star photos. We chatted and he gave me one of his photos of poppies he edited.

The shops were full of wool products and very pricey. T shirts are $30, handmade wool scarves are $55. I saw a few gifts I will get later to take home as Christmas presents and I am sure I can find them in other cities as well I just don't want to carry extra weight right now.

I sat for lunch at the Vuvu cafe for a great antioxidant drink and small berry filled muffin.  After walking around for about 3 hours, I head back to the shuttle service and back to the hotel.  This place has a complimentary laundry room, so I spend some time washing all my clothes and repack for the next section of the journey. I will get to sleep early tonight for sure as I have a pick up for a cool activity tomorrow at 6:30am. Only taking my iPhone on this all day jaunt.

More adventures to come!

Last Day Dinner

Trey and his wife Tina and 3 children hosted this group for a special finale dinner. He has a separate little cottage as his work studio about 30 yards away from his home. It is landscaped perfectly. The lane down to his home is so narrow and tree covered that our bus is having a bit of struggle getting to the end.

His home has huge glass windows and doors to take full advantage of the view of the Remarkables (mountains) and the valley. The dinner is catered and we are greeted by Tina and a glass of champagne. There are conversations all over and outside as well. He has heat lams on the deck to keep us warm, but honestly the temperature is perfectly cool. The servers stroll  about with appetizers like salmon, macaroons with goat cheese and outstanding scallops.

Dessert is a plate of delicious with small cheesecake bites and raspberry sorbet to compliment. There were several small speeches to compliment the chef and Trey and Tina.

Overall I would say this was an expensive adventure, but so worth it. I saw some breathtaking scenery, met some people I would like to visit again and learned from a world master, Trey Ratcliff. I learned so much about lighting, composition and of course the biggest take away was learning his technique to create HDR photos. I have only completed a few, but I will post them.

Day 5 - Last Day of Photography Workshop

As  always, up and out by 6:30 and it is really dark here at that hour. I took a piece of carrot cake from last night's dinner to have in the morning. Off we go to some high points around Queenstown for some sunrise shots. This view is fantastic! The clouds seem to hang midway up the mountains each day. I don't know if it is seasonal or a NZ thing, but is looks so cool. We spend about an hour at this hilltop location and watch the sun slowly light the valley and farms. We are above some cloud cover but it does not feel unsafe. The little sheep farms look like a green fairy land below all cut into squares.

We pile back on to the bus for another shooting location about half way down the mountain and the mist is burning off, but the low clouds are still below us. This is a short stop and we move over to Skipper's Canyon. This is so secluded and has a one lane road to the bottom. Our bus parks at the top and we hike about a mile down to an awesome point for some more photos. As I am hiking back up and hill around dwarfs me and I feel so tiny. This place is so different than our area at home. There are no trees on this place, only grasses fill the steep hillsides. In the photo below, you can barely see the road we walked on down to this pinnacle.

Skippers Canyon outside of Queenstown.

Following our morning shoot it is once again back to the hotel for breakfast and then our class. In the class we process the photo so many different ways before publishing them. The above photo was not processed. We get a 2.5 hour break before our last shoot and dinner at Trey and Tina's home.

The last photo shoot takes place at an old sugar mill with some old stable structures. Next to this old stable is the sweetest cottage I want to live in!  It belongs to someone who Trey knows and it is available for rent but the price was not announced. There are so many outdoor living areas. 

The second photo is of one of the 3 bedrooms, two of which open to the outdoors. Below you can see the red sofas right outside the front door and in the background a large 5 x 5 picnic table with umbrella can set many. There is a huge outdoor cooking/barbeque area as well. Around the side by the picnic table is an outdoor bed for lounging, complete with mosquito netting.

In the back of the home are two more decks. One has a very long family table, the other is a more private 2 seat area with a sun cover.

Beautiful place!