queenstown
Beyond The Remarkables mountain range and Deer Park Heights, Queenstown also boasts many other landscapes. In this post I share a few more of my favourites from my last visit, including views over Shotover River and a pink sunset across the lake.
One of the best places to catch spectacular sights of The Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown is Deer Park Heights. This lesser-known spot just recently reopened after several years out of operation. It is a photographer’s dream, and also full of famous locations from the Lord of the Rings movies. More information on the locations and how to book your visit can be found here.
The Blue Pools Track is a short walk near Wanaka, in the South Island of New Zealand. The track goes through a few bridges over translucent blue waters. This was a great place to sit and relax by the water, enjoying the surrounding nature. I can’t recommend this short walk enough, particularly early in the morning before too many people arrive. Below are just a few of my favourite images from my visit to this location.
After photographing the sunset at the Wanaka tree, I returned the following morning hoping for an equally spectacular sunrise. The low clouds and still lake did not disappoint, and this time the tree and the mountains were illuminated in a slightly different light. I was lucky to capture so many postcard-worthy images of this iconic tree in its original form.
New Zealand is full of spectacular farmland. Whilst in Wanaka, I came across some beautiful countryside scenery, including a number of deer and sheep farms. It was late in the afternoon and the fog started rolling into the horizon, creating a barrier between the trees in the foreground and the surrounding mountains. Here are some of my favourite images of the surroundings of a deer farm we stumbled upon by the side of the road.
Wanaka is a small town a few hours’ drive from Queenstown, in the South Island of New Zealand. Its main attraction is a tree that sits in the middle of the lake. The wanaka tree is likely the most photographed tree in the world, but unfortunately is has recently been attacked - the lowest branch was sawed off only a few months after my visit. This iconic tree will never look the same, unfortunately. I am lucky to have made it there before the damage was done. Enjoy these images of the wanaka tree in its original form.
Skippers Road is one of the most scenic drives in the Queenstown region in New Zealand’s South Island. It is known as a filming location for several scenes in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, and the river cutting through the canyon below is a popular spot for jet boating. This was a spectacular day-long drive offering photography opportunities both from the ground and from the air.
I always like to visit zoos and wildlife centres when I travel. Whilst visiting Queenstown, I stopped by Kiwi Birdlife Park to photograph New Zealand’s charismatic endemic bird species. This is a small park with a good range of species, from kākāriki (New Zealand parakeets) to pāteke (brown teal). I thoroughly enjoyed their educational presentation on conservation and their honey tasting session. Definitely worth a visit if you plan on stopping by Queenstown sometime soon!
The past few months have been so incredibly busy I haven’t been able to continue with my South Island trip blog posts. I have finally found the time to pick this back up, so here are some images of the lovely Kuwarau River and the Roaring Meg in Queenstown. I will keep posting new images from this latest New Zealand roadtrip over the next few weeks. Hope the wait over my hiatus has been worth it!
During our visit to Queenstown, we took the beautiful road through Skippers Canyon, known as the filming location for some of the Lord of the Rings movies. Although I will be sharing more conventional images of the road in the coming weeks, I also enjoyed photographing the trees in particular. The combination of living native trees and dead invasive species makes for some really interesting textures. In this blog post, I share some of my favourite textures of these Queenstown trees.
