The Catlins

Chronologically there were a couple of days spent in Queenstown before I headed down to the Catlins and captured some great pictures but as I returned to Queenstown later in the trip I'll save those pics for another post.

The Catlins is a region on the South Coast of New Zealand known for its rolling countryside and rugged coastline as well as its wildlife and waterfalls. I arrived to some pretty thick fog coming in off the ocean and was not hopeful of getting much shooting done

I had planned to shoot sunrise at the lighthouse at Nugget Point and on seeing the fog in the morning I nearly crawled back into my tent. However, part of me thought that I'd come all this way so I should give it a go. As I drive to the lighthouse I began to climb out of the cloud to reveal probably the most incredible sunrise that I have ever seen as the lighthouse rose from the clouds into the technicolour sky. Breathtaking.

The next couple of days were spent exploring the region. The Purakaunui Falls are one of the highlights of the region and I was lucky to have the place to myself for a while experimenting with ND filters and very long exposures to get the water looking silky. But I found that the McLean Falls were even more dramatic with 3 tiers of falls.

The wildlife in the region was awesome. The yellow-eyed penguin is extremely rare but a number of breeding pairs were known to be nearby and I was fortunate enough to spot a couple of them returning after a day spent fishing.

The Hector's dolphin is also very rare and the world's smallest species of dolphin. During the summer they come into the shore at Curio Bay and often swim near people. I was so lucky to have four of them swimming around me at one point, a fantastic experience (if a bit chilly)

Part 3 will be coming soon and will take in Milford Sound and the surrounding area.

Please get in touch if you would like any high quality prints of any of these images.