I’ve just spent a few days with some visitors from Sweden, a “Group Study Exchange” team sponsored by Rotary International. You can read about them in their blog here. For me was a great opportunity to brush up my Swedish language skills.
Two of the team were keen photographers so we left a few hours earlier than the rest of the team for the drive from Nelson to Murchison. We drove in a giant “S”, via Tapawera and St Arnauds. The weather had cleared up somewhat after heavy rain the day before, so the trip yielded some interesting images.
This next image was extremely painful. It was taken with a 300mm lens on a bean bag placed on top of a fence post. Unfortunately I failed to notice the insulators and a single wire running just inside the low barbed wire fence and allowed my right elbow to make contact. It’s been a while since I have been belted by an electric fence! Luckily my camera was turned off. I’m not sure what would have happened, I think in some circumstances it could get fried by such stupidity.
We had enough time to take a short walk into the bush at Lake Rotoiti and explore the lakefront. Patrick and Cornelia are the Swedish visitors shown in this shot.
Heading back down the Buller River to Kawatiri we screeched to a halt when we saw this beautiful rainbow. By this stage we were short of time, otherwise we would have backed up to get a better background.
When we said goodbye to the team in Murchison, my friend and I drove home via a small dirt road up the Mangles valley. It was a good exploratory field trip with some excellent locations. The river became smaller and smaller as we drove uphill, finally becoming a beautiful little stream in a fairly inaccessible ravine. However, just before we said goodbye to the beech forests we came across this spot which was accessible.
We reached civilisation again at Lake Rotoroa, where I took the cliche shot that everyone gets here.
Så adjö till Carin, Cornelia, Jenny, Johanna, Mathius och Patrick! Vi ses (hoppas jag)!