Having the opportunity to travel and photograph New Zealand's south island has been a dream of mine for the last two years and most likely the dream of other enthusiastic landscape photographers the world over. After living in the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong for the past three years it was finally time to exhale and explore the wide open spaces of this far away land set under southern skies. It has been my ambition for some time to progress my landscape photography which has been especially difficult to do in Hong Kong.
The journey to capture the best this land had to offer began in Christchurch on the south island's east coast, from there we quickly picked up our cosy albeit small camper van and immediately headed inland to the Mackenzie district where we spent our first evening and night camped at Lake Tekapo. At every bend and hilltop along the road there were countless vistas and sights that begged to be photographed, driving times between places were always double than that were planned and very right so given the splendid beauty of this land.
Our photographic journey across New Zealand's South Island took us from the rolling green hills of Canterbury to the parched highlands of Mackenzie down to the central lakes with their glistening glacial waters. As we drove further South we were surrounded by ice capped mountains and lush rain forested valleys that lead to the Fiords of the west coast. Around the South Island's South Eastern coats we were greeted by gloomy dark skies and high winds, a gentle reminder of my home back in Wales. We had covered a large loop around the Island that took us back up North to the rugged and drenched West coast. I wish we had spent more time on the Island's West coast or 'the coast' as many Kiwi's call it, this long stretch of wet and windy coast is a stark contrast to the landscapes found on the other side of the Southern Alps. In Mackenzie, the land was brown and gold and obviously starved of rain. However on the Western