Wet Day In Franz Josef

Today was a bit damp for most of the day. Clouds were down on the tops all day so we headed to the coast.

Okarito Beach was first stop but the rain was torrential so we sat in the car and waited for it to ease. It did eventually and I went on the beach and took some photos of the sea and some driftwood. My Mamiya 7 camera was very wet.

It was an hour or so after high tide and the sea was looking very impressive, big waves and lots of spray, as well as the rain. I ran off a film before retreating to the car to change film and move on to the next location.

A short way down the road was a large lake with a jetty and receding hills in the background. Quite a simple subject but very effective in black and white. The rain resumed just as I finished.

We headed south to Fox Glacier and off to the coast at Gillespies Beach. It was raining heavily as we arrived but soon eased to steady rain! Time to get out taking photos. I put my relatively new Rohan poncho on over my waterproof jacket to protect my camera gear (it covers everything and I don't need to carry a huge rucsac large enough for the camera case). The Poncho also served as a shelter under which I was able to change films and lenses. It worked really well.

The beach was strewn with driftwood - everywhere above the high tide line. This wasn't the odd twig or branch but enormous tree trunks complete with roots, and lots of them. The sea was still running high so it was a photographers dream. I ran off 5 rolls of different pieces of wood and various views to the sea or along the wood. Mostly I used a wide angle lens so that the wood was the main event in the image but 1 roll I ran off with the standard lens to bring the sea more into the shots.

That was it for the day's photography as the rain returned with a vengeance.

Tomorrow we move on to Wanaka. Hope the clouds move off the tops as I still don't have a shot of Mount Cook.

Nearly forgot to mention that we saw Tui birds today (bit like a large pigeon with 2 small white ballon/sacs inder its bill) and yesterday we had close encounters with Kea's, nesting high on Alex Knob. These are large dark coloured parrots that live and nest in high alpine areas but are quite rare. They didn't seem to like anyone walking up the track to Alex Knob as they made such a racket and swooped in quite close. We guessed that their nest must be very close.

Alex Knob in the Clouds

The forecast was for a reasonable start to the day before the clouds thickened and rain followed in the evening. An early breakfast was called for, 6.30am. We had a short drive to the start of the walk near the Franz Josef Glacier car park. We were walking by 7.45am and it was uphill all the way starting from just above sea level. That gave us a climb of 1300m.

Mostly we were in lush forest, lots of trees and ferns. The track was challenging too, lots of tree roots, rocks, big steps, big drops, etc. The uneven ground didn't help my bad back!

Made it to the top by 11.15am, the last 400m being in the clouds and cold and damp. No views. Very few views on way up because of high, dense foliage. Looked like I had no saleable images. Took a short detour to Wombat Lake on way down. This was particularly uninspiring so started looking for other subjects and homed in on ferns and brackens. I ended up with 3 rolls from the day, 1 of views from the hill, 2 of ferns.

Now we are in the Landing Bar in Franz Josef and it's happy hour!

South to Southern Alps

Today was a long travel day. We had to drive from Nelson in the north of South Island of New Zealand to Franz Josef, about half-way down the west coast.

We had an early breakfast and were on the road by 8.15am. A few coffee stops were needed to keep us going but the weather was good. After Greymouth we stopped in Horitika. I had no idea what to expect as this was an impromptu stop. Heading straight for the beach I was greeted by the usual grey sand, pretty close to 18% grey by my reckoning! I found some tree stumps and with waves crashing in the background and a low viewpoint ran off a couple of films. These were the only films of the day; we arrived in Franz Josef by 4pm with clouds well down on the tops.

Forecast is for reasonable weather to start with but deteriorating to rain by evening. We are planning to walk Alex Knob for views of glaciers and big mountains. This is about 1200m of ascent and will take about 8 hours. Hope the weather holds