Beyond Nowhere
After our fist week in New Zealand, we arrived in Wellington where we spent an afternoon before we took the Ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island the next morning. A friend of mine “warned” me that this crossing can be a little uncomfortable as there are typically strong winds, but in our case the weather was mild (in contrast to the night before in Wellington, where I woke up due to the wind slightly swaying the car) and we arrived in Picton after an 3 and a half hours ride. Fortunately, we were on time since we had most of our planned journey for that day still ahead of us: a drive to the northernmost point of the South Island. If Google Maps was right, the calculated route that looked not so dramatically long on the map should take us almost 5 hours, meaning that we should arrive at the campsite 45 minutes before sunset. So we fuelled up our car in Picton and started the journey, driving along one of the windiest roads I’ve ever driven, and all that with the longest vehicle I’ve ever driven. The narrow and windy roads made it feel like I was speeding, but I was always within the speed limits, trying not to waste any minute. In fact, I drove all the way without a single break, even though we would have loved to stop multiple times, especially at the Abel Tasman National Park which we read should be incredibly beautiful. The further north we got, the less civilisation there was, and on the last few kilometres, the road turned into a gravel road. In wise anticipation, we also downloaded the offline maps for this area, and as expected the Wifi in our mobile home indeed lost its signal.
To our surprise, we arrived at the campsite in time and seeing that there is nothing else than a farm and a cafe that was closed, we were even more surprised that there was a campsite in the middle of nowhere. We then quickly checked in (and were informed that there is a power limitation since this is basically the end of the power line), parked our camper and hurried to get to the beach. Fortunately, the path was easy to find and very beautiful as one walks past some very characterful trees that were formed by strong winds, looking constantly at the beautifully rolling green hills with lots of sheep before the path goes down through a small forest to the actual beach. At the entrance to Wharariki beach, you see some huge sea stacks in the distance and I was wondering if these are already the famous Archway Islands (at this point you only see it from the side from which the arches are not visible) that everyone knows that once had a Windows computer. We then walked further down the beach and noticed two people taking images of themselves and at this point it was clear: these must be the famous Archway Islands. We then hurried to get down there, set up everything and were right in time for catching the last sun rays, but I do have to admit that the following blue hour was even more beautiful and I might upload one of these blue hour images one day. However, it was not until the next morning that I took my favourite image from that location.
The next morning, we got up and hiked to the beach again to shoot sunrise, but on our way it turned out that the sun was rising exactly opposite to the Archway Island. Nevertheless, we set up our tripods, started shooting and waited till the tide rose. Since the few clouds in the sky didn’t really catch much color, I put on my 10 stop filter and waited for some bigger waves that got further onto the beach, and together with a 60 seconds exposure I was able to capture this beautiful and dreamy composition. Moreover, since the wave didn’t fully reach us, there are still some structures in the foreground that nicely serve as leading lines towards the Archway Islands. All in all, I’m really happy with this image and will never forget the short time we were able to spend at this incredibly beautiful and remote place. In fact, we read that it’s a shame that one drives up there only for visiting Wharariki beach and doesn’t explore the Farewell Spit and the whole Golden Bay, but there is always more to explore, isn’t it? I hope you like this image!
Beyond Nowhere
After our fist week in New Zealand, we arrived in Wellington where we spent an afternoon before we took the Ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island the next morning. A friend of mine “warned” me that this crossing can be a little uncomfortable as there are typically strong winds, but in our case the weather was mild (in contrast to the night before in Wellington, where I woke up due to the wind slightly swaying the car) and we arrived in Picton after an 3 and a half hours ride. Fortunately, we were on time since we had most of our planned journey for that day still ahead of us: a drive to the northernmost point of the South Island. If Google Maps was right, the calculated route that looked not so dramatically long on the map should take us almost 5 hours, meaning that we should arrive at the campsite 45 minutes before sunset. So we fuelled up our car in Picton and started the journey, driving along one of the windiest roads I’ve ever driven, and all that with the longest vehicle I’ve ever driven. The narrow and windy roads made it feel like I was speeding, but I was always within the speed limits, trying not to waste any minute. In fact, I drove all the way without a single break, even though we would have loved to stop multiple times, especially at the Abel Tasman National Park which we read should be incredibly beautiful. The further north we got, the less civilisation there was, and on the last few kilometres, the road turned into a gravel road. In wise anticipation, we also downloaded the offline maps for this area, and as expected the Wifi in our mobile home indeed lost its signal.
To our surprise, we arrived at the campsite in time and seeing that there is nothing else than a farm and a cafe that was closed, we were even more surprised that there was a campsite in the middle of nowhere. We then quickly checked in (and were informed that there is a power limitation since this is basically the end of the power line), parked our camper and hurried to get to the beach. Fortunately, the path was easy to find and very beautiful as one walks past some very characterful trees that were formed by strong winds, looking constantly at the beautifully rolling green hills with lots of sheep before the path goes down through a small forest to the actual beach. At the entrance to Wharariki beach, you see some huge sea stacks in the distance and I was wondering if these are already the famous Archway Islands (at this point you only see it from the side from which the arches are not visible) that everyone knows that once had a Windows computer. We then walked further down the beach and noticed two people taking images of themselves and at this point it was clear: these must be the famous Archway Islands. We then hurried to get down there, set up everything and were right in time for catching the last sun rays, but I do have to admit that the following blue hour was even more beautiful and I might upload one of these blue hour images one day. However, it was not until the next morning that I took my favourite image from that location.
The next morning, we got up and hiked to the beach again to shoot sunrise, but on our way it turned out that the sun was rising exactly opposite to the Archway Island. Nevertheless, we set up our tripods, started shooting and waited till the tide rose. Since the few clouds in the sky didn’t really catch much color, I put on my 10 stop filter and waited for some bigger waves that got further onto the beach, and together with a 60 seconds exposure I was able to capture this beautiful and dreamy composition. Moreover, since the wave didn’t fully reach us, there are still some structures in the foreground that nicely serve as leading lines towards the Archway Islands. All in all, I’m really happy with this image and will never forget the short time we were able to spend at this incredibly beautiful and remote place. In fact, we read that it’s a shame that one drives up there only for visiting Wharariki beach and doesn’t explore the Farewell Spit and the whole Golden Bay, but there is always more to explore, isn’t it? I hope you like this image!