chasing the light

boneywhitefoot

I hope this is all right,its not my intention to advertise on the forum in this form,its just Im posting on a few other forums and thought you guys and girls might enjoy this type of report and be encouraged to get out there.
If I offend anyone I will delete this post ...well postehaste.
here goes enjoy guys.
I will post the part of the journey in a few days if that is alright with you folks,also this was ment for a group Ive been in relationships with for many years so some things might not make sense

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Some you guys and girls may remember that two years ago, I sold my house, chucked in my job, cashed up, spent a small fortune on new camera gear and headed to the South Island for almost a month to see parts of New Zealand I had only dreamed about at that time.<o:p></o:p>
I started out by spending a week whitebaiting(fishing for small but very, very delicious fishes with nets in Karamea on the west coast of the South Island with a good mate, I visited Punakaiki, spending a few days shooting the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes and kicked around Greymouth and Arthurs Pass for a few days before heading over to a mates place in Dunedin.<o:p></o:p>
All up I spent 4 weeks with Stephen.<o:p></o:p>
We hit the South Island big time by shooting up the east coast from Dunedin to Christchurch, across Arthurs Pass to the west coast, onwards down the coast past Fox Glacier to Haast, up over the Haast Pass and inland to Wanaka, on to Queenstown and then the big Kahuna Milford Sound, staying Gunns Camp in the beautiful Hollyford Valley,(this is a must see and stay over for those who can handle no power, except for two hours each night) we used this place to launch our forays into the Fiordland National Park in general.<o:p></o:p>
After all that we arrived back at Stephens place, we repacked our gear and spent a further 10 days hunting around the far end of Lake Manapouri ,then Back through Southland to Dunedin and home to Wellington completely buggered, but during that time we had hatched a cunning plan .<o:p></o:p>
Whitebaiting on the west coast.<o:p></o:p>
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Punakiaki , the pancakes rocks and blowhole<o:p></o:p>
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Sunset , Greymouth.<o:p></o:p>
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Lake Matheson, Fox<o:p></o:p>
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Castle Hill station, Arthurs Pass.<o:p></o:p>
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Porters Pass , Arthurs Pass<o:p></o:p>
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Lake Manapouri<o:p></o:p>
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Milford sond<o:p></o:p>
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It was during this trip that the concept of Lightchasers-NZ (photographic tours)was born and started to grow whilst we raced around the South Island , chasing the light and experiencing the excitement of not knowing what scene was going to unfold next. Although the Idea of running a photographic tour business was put on hold for a few years, as I had more hunting and tramping adventures to experience along with a whole host of people I wanted to meet up with, the idea of lightchasers was never far away ,it snuck into our conversations, woke me up at night and generally was never far from my mind, fast forward to the present time ,running short of funds and having thought it through ,we Stephen and I have decided to make a go of it and are convinced that we can do a very good job of it, hence this last attack on my southern cousins. <o:p></o:p>
Anyway enough advertising and on the road trip itself.<o:p></o:p>
Recovering from my wee drinkies from the first night by having a few of the dog that bit me, we hit the sack and was up early the next day.<o:p></o:p>
Stephen had shot a couple of deer a few days before to keep our eating costs down while we were on the road ,so they had to be butchered, most of the meat going into the freezer for the missus and the kids, the rest mainly the choice bits were thrown in the chilly bin shoved on the back of our wagon(named the snot) to age during our photographic assault on the Central Otago /Mackenzie Basin areas.<o:p></o:p>
It was early arvo when we finally hit the road heading for Middle March and the absolutely amazing Maniototo,by the time we made the open road we had just enough time for a few shots and darkness over took us and we made Ranfurly, the home of New Zealand rugby and the countries capital of the mighty Maniototo.<o:p></o:p>
the sunshine breaking through<o:p></o:p>
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Sunset in the Maniototo<o:p></o:p>
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Stephen getting in the road again<o:p></o:p>
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our wheels aka the snot<o:p></o:p>
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We had decided to use backpackers when we could as this allows us to meet a whole stack of interesting and diverse people utilizing the same facilities.<o:p></o:p>
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cjmchch

Great series of images from our home land, well done, and well presented.

Eia

They are gorgeous; a perfect title. It certainly shows you chased AND caught the light!

davidryan

Excellent series! Well done!

schmoo

Fantastic series and thank you for taking the time to post here and share it with us! I'm glad to hear that you chased not only the light but your dream, and it's so inspiring to see your gorgeous results.

I certainly hope that you keep coming back to Dgrin and showing us what you've been up to. Good luck to you!

boneywhitefoot

Thanks guys abd girls Ill post again in the next few days

Joashots

Wow- what a magical place! Beautiful pictures.

Doug Solis

Really nice series! I think your lake photos are outstanding. Beautiful compositions and lighting. Thanks for sharing.