Blog

We were down in Wellington for the weekend visiting our daughter. I woke early on Sunday morning and seeing it was a clear morning headed out to get some dawn photos looking over the city from the Khandallah hills. These shots were taken from Armritsar St starting from approx an hour before sunrise.Wellington city and harbourThe first Picton Ferry sailing of the day heading out across the harbour.Early morning cloud lit up above the Petone foreshore lights.Wellington city lights Sunlit cloud acr …

The Mahood Lowe reserve was opened in March 2019 after the Native Forest Restoration Trust managed to acquire a block of land adjacent to the Egmont National park boundary at the end of Alfred Rd and secure its protection.  I've been meaning to check out this reserve for a while and finally made it up there today.  The reserve is accessed via a gravel track off the end of Alfred Rd. It is a unique block of mixed podocarp wetland forest. It boarders an area of the national park whe …

We have a small flock of eastern rosella that are frequently in our garden. We often see or hear them flying through the garden or hear them chattering away to each other within our large puriri tree.  They are very chatty birds and have a wide rang of calls. They are also very alert and can be difficult to get close to and photograph.  At this time of year they are regularly seen feeding on flax seeds. For the last few weeks I have regularly seen them feeding in the flax on the s …

I was determined to get in one last snow climb of Taranaki before the snow was all melted as summer set in so I set off to Dawson Falls on new years day.  When climbing in summer I was always set off early for a couple of reasons.1. So I complete much of the climb in the cool of dawn2. So I can watch the sunrise from high up on the mountain.So for this climb I left home soon after 3:00am and set of on my climb from Dawson Falls by torch light at around 4:15am. I climbed steadily in the dark …

Last weekend I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to walk the Abel Tasman track with my daughter Sarah. We set off from Wellington on the 16th Jan catching the early morning ferry to Picton. It was a smooth crossing though heavily overcast as we came through the sounds. We stopped at Picton for lunch before heading off on the Queen Charlotte drive to make our way to Nelson.  By this time the cloud had cleared and we got some stunning views of the sounds.This is Queen Charlotte sound t …