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Notice: Undefined index: LatestPoster in /var/www/vhosts/fredmiranda.com/httpdocs/forum/functions_2021_i.php on line 1852 Landscape Photographer - Photography - FM Forums
Congratulations to Steve Miller for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 4 votes - View Previous Winners
My wife and I recently returned from four weeks in New Zealand. It's been on our bucket list forever and after building it up in our minds for so long, I'm happy to say it exceeded our expectations. We spent nine days on the North Island and the rest of the time in the South Island, putting 2,600 miles on our rental car (shout out to the RAV4 and the 43 mpg we averaged during the trip!).
The North Island is beautiful but the South Island is in a league of its own. Just when we picked our jaws up from the ground from one breathtaking vista, we'd turn the corner and see another view that surpassed the previous one. Truly the most beautiful country I've visited.
The focus of the trip was to see the country and hike some great trails, with photography being more of a "fit it in when possible" aspect to the trip. I was still able to take a ton of shots but there were very few sunrises/sunsets and for the bulk of the time on our hikes, I preferred my iPhone 16 Pro Max over the much heavier Z8/24-120 combo. The one shot I was determined to get was the Milky Way rising over The Church of The Good Shepherd in Lake Tekapo. Imagine my surprise when the Southern Lights crashed the party!!!
Always tough to select your own favs but here are my current Top 10 photos from the trip.
Steve
Lake Tekapo - Milky Way photobombed by the Aurora Australis
Steve, what a timely post of NZ! My 3 week South Island trip starts next weekend Lovely set of images my favorite would be View into the Milford Sound. Beautiful conditions, was that right before the tunnel or after?
keepclicking wrote:
Steve, what a timely post of NZ! My 3 week South Island trip starts next weekend Lovely set of images my favorite would be View into the Milford Sound. Beautiful conditions, was that right before the tunnel or after?
Thanks!
That shot is a couple of switchbacks after the tunnel, as you're making your way down to Milford Sound. We totally lucked out with the weather. There was a torrential downpour the night before we arrived, so there were waterfalls everywhere. It was still cloudy on the drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound and when we cleared the tunnel, this was the view we had. When we got to Milford Sound the sun popped out and the clouds cleared so we ended up having two perfect days to explore the Sound. 24 hours after this shot was taken, most of the waterfalls had dried up.
PM me if you have any questions for your trip. Three weeks solely focused on the South Island will be perfect. Even though we had four weeks for both, with about 2/3 in the South, we were a bit rushed. You're going to love it!
A beautiful set of images!
How crowded was the church at Lake Tekapo at night? I was there twice, in 2009 when there was noone and 2019 when it was completely overrun with tourists - it made me fear that this once tranquil place had been lost forever to mass tourism. Your photo suggests it has probably calmed down?
keepclicking wrote:
Steve, what a timely post of NZ! My 3 week South Island trip starts next weekend Lovely set of images my favorite would be View into the Milford Sound. Beautiful conditions, was that right before the tunnel or after?
You will be there at the start of autumn. A general rule of thumb is April 20th is roughly the peak for autumn colours in NZ. Obviously the weather prior has a bearing on the date.
Have a great trip!
Mar 23, 2025 at 08:51 PM
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DistantPlaces wrote:
A beautiful set of images!
How crowded was the church at Lake Tekapo at night? I was there twice, in 2009 when there was noone and 2019 when it was completely overrun with tourists - it made me fear that this once tranquil place had been lost forever to mass tourism. Your photo suggests it has probably calmed down?
I’m not sure when they put it up, but there is now a gated fence around the perimeter of the church. It’s closed at night which is great for photographers because tourists can’t get in and block your shot. At different times while I was shooting, there were maybe a max of ten photographers shooting, but most of the time there were maybe a handful. For the most part, everyone knew to use red head lamps and keep them pointed away from the church…though non-photographers often walked by with phone lights hitting the scene. Overall though it wasn’t too bad.
The biggest problem was cars driving by on the road behind the church (on the front side of it). Their car lights ruined some frames but if I wanted a dozen sky shots to stack, I needed maybe 20 to weed out stray light trail shots.
kalifornier wrote:
Stunning shots! NZ remains my favorite country after all these years of traveling around the world.
Thanks!
I've been in somewhere between 35-40 countries so far and I wholeheartedly agree. Definitely my favorite and most beautiful country I've visited to date. I'm sure there are plenty of equally stunning spots in countries around the world, but we were blown away by the diversity and beauty of the terrain. From beaches, to snow capped mountains, to fiords, to tropical forests. Truly a magnificent country.
Lovely set of images my favorite would be View into the Milford Sound. Beautiful conditions, was that right before the tunnel or after?