On the ferry ride to Picton.
From the "scenic car" of the TranzScenic train to Christchurch.
Tricky shutter speed work here.
This is Allie Button. You'll be seeing a lot of her in this album.
They harvest salt here. I think algae make the water various shades of red, blue, and gree.
The train travels down the east coast.
This is Cole Bingham. You'll also be seeing a lot of him in this album.
A panorama from atop the hills of Christchurch.
That's David McKie, my flatmate Hannah's dad. He drove us up the mountain and showed us around.
That's the Cook Strait, our sweet van!
Our first attempt at a standing-on-top-of-the-van shot.
Lake Tekapo one cold evening.
The self-timer function on my camera has no tolerance for our lack of balance.
This is what we were going for.
Suddenly, Cole found himself surrounded by man-eating foliage.
Moonlight at our Mt. Cook illegal campsite.
That's the shelter with the bathrooms around back.
There was about a meter of snow on the ground.
Lake Pukaki. This photo has not been edited in any way; the lake really is that color.
Pukaki Panorama
Sometimes I hand my camera off for pictures of myself. And sometimes I only wear one glove.
I swear this wasn't posed.
I don't know... a handstand just seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
A sweet valley we drove through.
A cool bridge.
Where we had Subway on the edge of Lake Wanaka.
Wanaka, taken from the side of Mt. Iron
Wanaka panorama from Mt. Iron
At the top of Mt. Iron
Mostly, we just take pictures of stuff.
I wish I had tried to look a little less like a dork in this picture.
The ridgeline halfway up Mt. Roy
Allie told me to do this...
Cole walking out on the ridge line.
Ridge line panorama from the side of Mt. Roy
Can you find Cole?
Allie.
That's me.
Leave it to me to ruin a good photo with a stupid pose.
Somehow, they mustered smiles on the way down.
Cole at Roaring Meg, one of the lamest things we visited.
Our first DOC success, which at night, looked like the middle of nowhere.
The Kawarau Bridge
Me about to jump. Soon after this, the guy behind me said, "You'll want to let go of the bridge, mate. That's got to stay here."
Me jumping, with perfect swan dive form.
Bouncing around was fun.
This is how they get you down.
Allie scooting out to the edge.
Allie jumping.
Cole was quite happy before he jumped.
Cole almost went feet-first. Bad form, Cole.
But he got dunked to his waist.
Taking pictures with his waterproof camera.
Afterwards, I tried to take some pictures from the top to show what the height looks like from the top.
The platform.
Queenstown panorama from atop the gondola.
Lots of paragliding happens in Queenstown.
It was actually really hard to get up into that tree.
Arrowtown!
A short photo shoot with Cole.
Allie driving the Cook Strait.
Perenuka has no significance... the light was just good for a photo. And that rock looked cool.
Cool, an old truck! Let's take pictures on it!
I'm not sure what lake this was (it's off of Milford Road), but it was great for photos.
This rock was much like a chair, so we sat in it.
That's my Gorillapod on my knee.
Cole sometimes comes up with strange photo ideas, but they always work.
Our best on-top-of-the-van group shot.
Mirror Lakes. (That's actually what they're called.)
Random side-of-the-road beauty on the way to Milford Sound.
Milford at sunset
Long exposures in the dark, dark night at Camp Gunn. We wrote stuff with a flashlight.
Cole was terrible at writing his name backwards, so in his anger, he created squiggles.
Tricky exposure. It kind of worked.
This is the kind of goofy stuff at the very weird Camp Gunn.
"Sandfly reserve. Please close the gate."
Mitre Peak, one of the most photographed mountains in the world.
So, Milford Sound gets 6-9 meters of water a year, and it was sunny when we went.
Mitre Peak is also believed to be the tallest mountain in the world that juts straight out of the water.
And then bottlenose dolphins found our cruise boat and hung out for a while.
They loved swimming right under our bow, where I was standing.
The U-shaped valley indicates that these mountains were formed by a glacier passing through a long time ago.
One of the many temporary waterfalls that form when it rains or snow is melting on top of the mountains.
We struggled to get good sunglass reflection shots.
Seals hang out on these rocks.
This guy was chillin' on top.
You can also take expensive plane tours of Milford Sound and the surrounding area.
Many, many waterfalls.
I think this was my best reflection shot.
A picturesque moment walking up to Key Summit.
A sign called this area the "fragile area".
Sometimes, the sunsets look like this...
A sweet footbridge over a river to reach the Blue Pools.
...and the Blue Pools were really a deep green color.
We didn't see any hobbits in these woods, but I know they were there...
We do this thing where we take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other.
A random west coast pit stop.
Cole: Check this one out! Allie: Ooo, I'm totally stealing that from you.
Yes, that's why they were standing on the rail.
and sometimes, the sunset looks like this.
...or like this.
More photo reviewing.
And then we went to the beach.
Skipping rocks on the ocean is difficult.
The Best Photographer Award goes to my Gorillapod.
I surreptitiously took this through some driftwood.
and that's the driftwood.
Stony beaches are more fun than they sound.
The Tasman Sea lapping at my feet.
Then we drove 90 km out of the way to see the Pancake Rocks!
Another chair-like rock formation.
So, long story short, Cole passionately loves pancakes.
Cole... trespassing.
If only they were REAL pancakes...
Fact: there are more sheep than people in New Zealand.
Cole trespassing... again. The sheep knew right away that he wasn't one of them.
Castle Hill, home of some of the best bouldering in the world.
Big rocks.
We think part of the first Narnia movie was filmed here, beyond the fence. But that's private property.
Big, strangely shaped rocks.
Yeah, mostly, we just take pictures of each other.
...and spit and stuff.
Leaning a bit too far over the edge?
Allie in Narnia.
Cole in the real world.
Cole hopping the fence to Narnia. (And therefore, trespassing again.)
Cole in Narnia.
Mirdorf, the talking sheep that welcomed us to Narnia.
...not really.
