The brutality we don't miss at all

More backlog for you today as we think about what to do. These are from the Auckland Botanical Gardens.

As a brief aside, here's the brutality we don't miss at all. This sort of weather is exactly why we took vacation now. Maybe this makes us wimps. Whatever. My non-north american blog readers might get a kick out of this.

It's a cool and overcast day here. We woke up slowly, drinking our coffee and eating breakfast, looking out over the harbour. It's supposed to get nicer this afternoon. From our perspective, it's already pretty darn nice.

Back to the backlog, taken on a hot sunny day.

There were a bazillion bees in there, and many are huge. I was tempted to stay and try to capture some of them, but that was tempered by not having the right lens, and I'm slowly cooking in the direct sunlight, not being quite acclimatized to the heat.

The new view. How we suffer

This is what I see as I'm blogging, or working on my writing. I could get used to this.

The view after walking about 5 minutes. There's lots more all around, but the light was difficult and there was some haze.

Looking directly south.

I think there's huge potential for sunrise, sunset shots over the next little while.

Backlog walk, climbs, and light, plus Linda

We went for a walk on the path between two of the little bays here, then climbed to the top of the point between the next bays. That turned into a good workout, hot and sweaty.

Along the way I found this absolutely perfect light for these little white morning glorys. They were just luminous, but there was no glare.

Regular readers will know I'm a sucker for old wood.

Along the way there was a serious bit of overhang where the waves have chewed the rock away. I suspect walking just above that, or in the overhang would be a bad idea.

Linda having conquered the climb to the top of the point and enjoying the breeze.

Here's more from the gondola ride and the walk along the ridge line. It's a long way up.

You can't quite see where we are staying.

Just off image to the right is Sumner beach. If we were here longer we'd go back and stroll that long beach.

This hill off to the side of the view of the bay has been fascinating me for the entire visit. I think if the light was just right there would be a terrific photo in there. This is about as good as it's likely to get.

We are up to day 27, so not quite half done. I would be heart broken if I could only take 3 or 4 weeks vacation here. There's so much to see and do! We are trying to pace ourselves.

From the deck

As you may have gathered, we have a nice view from our rented accommodation. The sunset was pretty nice. I got a bit lucky with this panorama, since its 3.3 wide by 1 tall, done with only 2 shots.

Then I was up in the night looking at clear skies. I know from looking at the light pollution maps there is no really dark sky within an hour's drive, and certainly no location I'd scouted that might offer an island of darkness and a neat foreground. So I stood on the deck in my skivies (it was warm) and shot for about a half hour.

The Southern Cross was easily visible to my eyes, but it's much harder to see in photos. I have a theory, but that's all.

D26, Beach 10.5, 48.5, 204.3

So there we were, mid morning. We found a parking spot right beside the beach, after dodging many dozen cyclists on the way. It must have been club ride day or something.

Sumner beach is lovely. I'd like to say that Linda was on the way (again) to the clothing optional section, but there isn't one.

We walked 10.5 K along the beach, then lunch after. This week we've walked 48.5 K. On day 31 we are at 204.3 K total trip.

Awash and aloft

Remember that sunrise from the other morning? Here's another from the same sunrise, just a little earlier. It really was that purply pink on the water. Now I'm waiting for the sunset tonight. The clouds are promising.

What a wonderful day! The Lyttelton Farmers Market is amazing! The vibe is terrific, the quality of all the products is as high as I've ever seen, and everybody seemed to be having a good time. It was busy without being a crush. Various smells washed over us, tempting us. A bumbleberry crumble reached out and reeled me in. Had we been here longer, and not had an airline flight in a few days, we would have bought lots more.

There's healthy stuff like fruit and veg, sweet treats, bread and bread stuff, sausage of various kinds, oils, sauces, and lots more. Pies! If Simple Simon tried to set up business here they'd be laughed off the island.

Linda is all excited by this chile flavour salad dressing. Full of yummy goodness, GF, organic, and who knows what else all.

One live musician (Didgera) was playing a didgeridoo, and two different modified sax, plus some (I think) electronic computerized stuff to create a hypnotic groove. A little further down there was an earnest singer guitar player, and at the other end some buskers were set up, but I don't think they were part of the market proper.

I talked to a photographer for a while, though that website is down temporarily. He gave me some great ideas for photo locations near here, if only I have the time. He was part of the arts and crafts part of the market. I've already begun to plan my next trip already.

Then a tourist thing, up the gondola. Pity there was a bit of a haze over the city, but it's still a great view. We walked along the ridge a bit, being very careful. The footing is tricky even on the paths, and out in the tussocky long grass it's really brutal.

There's practically a tower on every hill.

A tank farm even, to service the petroleum industry. I wonder if I could get a job there, and never have to worry about a polar vortex again. The problem is that this very harbour is where the epicenter of the Christchurch earthquake happened. They are still fixing things.

I think this is the city centre. It's hard to tell because of the haze.

And a panorama. We can see part of this bay from our deck, but the place we are staying is out of sight behind that hill on the right.

Two wonderful meals, sitting on the deck in the warm sunshine, looking over the bay. Life is good.

January Image of the Month

So begins another year of photography! As it happens (it didn't just happen, there was deep planning and careful forethought put into it!) we are not home. This place is pretty darn photogenic even with unflattering light. Sunrise or sunset, and some of the interesting stuff and it becomes amazingly photogenic.

It's easy to take lots of photos here. 6319 this month, in case you were wondering. 515 have been edited, (and I'm way behind, still), with 30 ending up with 4 stars. That's pretty well one a day. Only one 5 star image though, so that makes it easy. No runner up or anything, just another look at the stars.

Which turns out to be a weird thing. I'd edited the photo, went wow, and posted it on various social media. When I came back to look at it earlier today, there was a huge mottled band across the middle, and I'm wondering how I could possibly have not noticed that. At first I thought I'd done something, or Lightroom was playing games with me, or it was a laptop screen thing. But no.

So I went back to the original and did the edit over again, and it came out slightly different, and I think better. Then I remembered that for complicated reasons I'd turned the graphic processor off. So I turned it back on and restarted. Nope. Must have been my miss-calibrated eyeballs or something. So I'm going with this version.

For the three of you that missed it first time round, this is on the beach behind our rented house in Queenstown. Kelvin Grove, if you know it. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw stars when I looked out. It had been cloudy when I went to bed.

I gathered my stuff and walked down to the beach. It was windy and warm, with a half moon off image to the left. There was some deep shadows and I set up there. Trying to get the horizon level was the hard part. The peaks off to the left are The Remarkables, and this photo does not do them justice at all.

The sky is pretty dark considering Queenstown is just on the other side of the peninsula not far away. For Calgary locals, you would have to drive out to about Bragg Creek to be that dark. I'd like to make the Milky way a bit brighter, but that brings up some of the back ground noise.