• Day 7 Queenstown

    Well, it had to happen and today was the day.  Snow!  Yes, I awoke to beautiful snow showers sprinkling across Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables.  The whole of the town took on this magical glow.  I live in a tropical climate so experiencing snow for me is special.

     

    After a huge breakfast I headed out to Arrowtown, about 20 minutes away from Queenstown.  Here I found early settler houses and a main street filled with incredible character.  There’s the old Chinese settlement from the gold rush days, with huts so small you WOULD hit a cat if you did swing it!  Goodness knows how they survived in those tiny huts during the snow of winter.  They made for some great photos in the snow.

     

    In the evening I went to Queenstown’s botanical gardens and got some terrific shots around a water fountain that changed colour.

     

    I love Queenstown so much.  There’s something about it I connect with so well.  Maybe it’s the mixture of adventure and beautiful scenery?  All I know is I feel like I’m home when here.

     

    I think it’s time for a delicious Patagonia’s hot chocolate.  See you all tomorrow 🙂

     

    Queenstown Gardens

     

     

  • Day 6 Queenstown

    Another long day of driving 6 hours to and from Milford Sound from Queenstown, but it is SO worth it!  Picture perfect day for weather once again and mother nature turned it on for me as I drove into Te Anau, the entry towards Milford Sound.

     

    I got shots of ice caked rocks with rushing water coming down rivers.  Early morning mist on long sweeping plains, waterfalls, plants frozen solid, panoramas of misty snow capped mountains.  For the first time I witnessed an avalanche at Homer Tunnel.  It was scary and exhilarating all at the same time.  Needless to say I didn’t stick around long after that and continued on to Milford pronto.

     

    Milford Sound is so beautiful, a natural fiord carved by an ancient glacier.  It’s filled with wildlife, tall snow capped mountains and crystal clear blue water.  I am so happy with the shots I got and can’t wait to get home and see them on my large computer screen.  While travelling out of the sound I had my GoPro mounted on the front of the Milford Sovereign ship I was travelling on.  Got some interesting shots with it.

     

    Well, tomorrow I think I’ll take a break and cruise for while.  See where the wind takes me.  To be honest you can point you camera anywhere here in and around Queenstown and you’re pretty much guaranteed a great shot 🙂

     

    Milford Sound Cruise

     

  • Day 5 Queenstown

    Such a beautiful day today.  Started out a little cloudy, but quickly cleared up to reveal stunning mountain ranges covered in snow.

     

    I decided to head to Glenorchy today.  A little town about 45 minutes away from Queenstown.  The mountains here are just stunning and combined with the aqua blue water of Lake Wakatipu made for some great shots.

     

    From here I headed to a place called Paradise.  This is one of my favourite places in the world because of it’s diverse landscape elements.  Lakes, wildlife, forest, waterfalls, long sweeping plains, and mountains.  Of course it is here that I am in my element.  I almost filled my camera memory card for the first time on this trip.  I was salivating as I saw the most amazing gifts of nature.  Snow frosted plants.  mirrored snowy mountains in lakes, rock solid frozen grass with icicles and suns rays streaming through tall ancient forest trees.

     

    What a magnificent trip it has been so far.  So much fun, wonderful weather and getting some great shots along the way.  Tomorrow is Milford Sound.  I’m going to try out my new Nikon 80-400mm lens and hopefully get some good wildlife shots 🙂

     

    Diamond Lake

     

     

  • Day 3 Queenstown

    An absolutely stunning day here in Queenstown New Zealand!

     

    The day began with a trip out to the gorgeous Wanaka via the short cut up and over the Alpine Ranges.  There were many stunning vantage points looking back over the valley, perfect for my first panorama.

     

    First things first, as I drove into Wanaka I visited my favourite little bakery that I had discovered years ago and ordered the usual.  Meat pie and cream filled donut (trust me I don’t always eat this bad).  From there I went across the road to Lake Wanaka.  If you are ever visiting the south island of New Zealand you MUST visit here.  The scenery is jaw dropping.  Very happy with the shots I obtained including a terrific collection of shots around this lonely little tree protruding from the lake.

     

    I then hit the road and headed back to Queenstown, but kept going to get to a small remote lake called Moke.  I can’t wait to put the panoramic shots I got here together.  Perfect mirrored image mountains for 180 degrees.  Got a little hairy going out to here due to snow and ice on the dirt road, but it was so worth it!

     

    In the evening I took the Queenstown skyline gondola to the top of the mountain which overlooks the town.  Beautiful sunset shots with colours of pink and purple in the sky above The Remarkables mountain range.  What a glorious way to end a magnificent day.  Just love this place to bits!

     

    Queenstown Evening

     

     

  • Day 1 Queenstown New Zealand

    I will never grow tired of flying into Queenstown New Zealand for as long as I live.  The scenery of the snowy mountains as you fly in is just spectacular!  I’m back in one my favourite places on Earth.  I have been here twice before and this time I have my new camera with a new array of lenses.  This place is a landscape photographers dream.  It is the backdrop for such movies as The Lord of the Rings, Wolverine and The Hobbit, plus countless TV commercials (mainly for cars driving along the Glenorchy Road next to Lake Wakatipu).

     

    As my plane was delayed and I landed only hours before the sunset I was unable to rattle off a quick snapshot for you. But below is a quick shot I took from my room with my iphone.  Going to be hard waking up to this every morning 😉

     

    Stay tuned as I venture around the stunning south island of New Zealand.  Promise I’ll have a shot for you tomorrow.  Take care.

     

    The Remarkables Queenstown

     

  • Day 5 Cook Islands

    AvaruaUp early again to do  more sunrise shots.  This time I found this perfect spot with a single palm tree low to the beach.  I worked around that getting various shots.

     

    Then I hit the road on the scooter.  I stopped at various locations around Rarotonga grabbing shots, including secluded beaches, Wigmore’s Waterfall, Black Rock (got a FANTASTIC panorama here with the aqua blue ocean), and around the main town of Avarua.

     

    In the afternoon, I took the GoPro diving and got some more great shots of star fish, coral and fish.  Well, when in paradise…

     

    And that was where my day ended abruptly as I strained my right foot/ankle while diving. Twisted the wrong way while standing up to get into my kayak (that’s life).  Had to rest up and go into repair mode pretty quickly.  It was lucky the injury happened when it did anyway as a large rain storm came in and swamped everything, so was still not able to get my elusive sunset shot or any shots for that matter.

     

    Time to rest up, repair, and oh, is that another cocktail calling? 🙂

  • Day 3 Cook Islands

    Up to shoot the sunrise and beginning of the Adrian Alford Photography video which you will see completed mid 2013 on this website.  Basically the video will detail more about my photography, my techniques and some of the stunning places I get to visit.  It will appear under the “About Adrian” tab.

     

    Had to go into the main town of Avarua to get my Cook Islands drivers licence for the scooter.  Even though I have a drivers licence and international drivers licence they still require you to have a “Cook Islands” drivers licence.  There is one main road that goes around the circumference of Rarotonga so it’s pretty hard to get lost.  I had a bit of fun with the drives licence picture and nailed “Blue Steel” hehe 🙂

     

    I then went to Wigmore’s waterfall in the middle of the island.  It was this perfect little oasis and I got a lot of different angles.  The best part was when the sun came out and dappled across the waterfall and green mossed ledge side, beautiful.  The mosquitos were pretty thick though.  My camera and scooter were covered in them as they’re attracted to black.  I did however have some tropical strength insect repellent (which coincidentally had just picked up from a store) so that kept them at bay thankfully.

     

    Did more scouting and found some good spots for more shots.

     

    In the afternoon I made my way over to the deserted Taakoka island via kayak in the middle of Muri Lagoon.  Took the Gopro Hero 3 camera and found a perfect spot to go snorkelling.  Got some incredible video footage and stills of the different fish, corals and bombies.  The best shot however was when I surfaced and discovered a single yellow hibiscus flower floating in the middle of the ocean.  I got a terrific shot as it floated by (see insert).  I am now using it as my blog background 🙂

     

    Found the perfect beach to take another sunset shot.  Unfortunately the sunset was a complete dud this evening.  But will return to the same spot tomorrow and hopefully get a better shot.

  • Day 2 Cook Islands

    CoconutSPECTACULAR sunrise this morning so took full advantage with the silhouette of islands in the lagoon.  Lots of clouds with pink, orange and purple colours.  Probably some of the best sunrise shots I’ve ever taken.  These will be available to view and buy very soon from this website, stay tuned.

     

    I secured my scooter for getting around the island for the rest of the week.  Love my scooters, just so much fun!  They’re also economical, easy parking and they can get you into places cars can’t.  Great for photography.

     

    Shot pics for new exciting website soon to launch called slimbirdy.com.  I have a feeling this website will be a HUGE hit in the future, so keep your eyes out for that one.  It concentrates on healthy living tips, delicious recipes, fun exercise and much much more.

     

    In the afternoon I did a bit of scouting for locations, then shot a beautiful sunset on the western side of the island.

     

    Off to shoot night shots with bright stars over islands.

     

    Loving this place so much!  🙂

  • Day 1 Cook Islands

    Taakoka IslandAfter a long flight and arriving at 1am in Rarotunga, it was relieving to get to my accom at Muri Beach.  Given the late hour, I could not resist to go down to the waters edge in front of my bungalow.  I looked up to see the milky way in a bright cloudless night sky over the silhouette of a small island out in the lagoon.  Pricelsss moment.

     

    Upon waking I discovered an oasis lagoon with water so blue it was like someone had tipped coloured dye into the water.  I have been blessed with beautiful weather today to get my initial shots around the Muri Beach area.  Remote lttle islands lay within the lagoon so I grabbed a kayak and paddled out to do a recky for some potential shots on one of the islands.  Found some great spots.

     

    Once again luck was upon me and a group of young local children had a sailing regatta in the lagoon.  Their miniature sailing boats were too cute, and boy could they go!  Got some wonderful shots as they raced around the lagoon.

     

    Such a magnificent first day and I still have all week to enjoy.  Am really looking forward to it.

    Sunrise and sunset shots again tomorrow.  Have found some nice locations to shoot from.

    I also have a new best friend in a little cat who follows me around everywhere getting under my feet hence her nickname CIC.  Short for Cook Islands Cat.

  • Bonjourno Italia – Tuscany – Chianti Hills

    Day 1 Tuscany – Ok.  Umm.. wow!  There is a line in the movie Forrest Gump where he was describing his run across America and a beautiful sunrise he saw, “I couldn’t tell where the Earth stopped and Heaven began.”  Well, I think I have found it.  I am based at the small town of Gaiole, Tuscany.  The word “bellissimo” just doesn’t do it justice here.  The colour intensity of the flowers are so bright it hurts your eyes to look at them.  There are roses and flowers in every colour, long fields of olive groves, sunflowers, birds singing, vineyards and hills with old villa farm houses or castles on top of them.  Photographic fodder.  This afternoon we had a light shower of rain and I ventured out to grab some shots after it had stopped.  The water droplets on the flowers were just perfect.

     

    Funny thing on the way here my taxi driver was driving one handed whilst talking on his mobile phone, changing gears and steering with the one hand.  He was speaking in Italian and spoke angrily to the person on the other end of the phone.  He hung up in disgust (I think).  Then the phone rang again.  His ring tone on his Nokia was the Beach Boys – “Surfin USA” original song.  Then he started yelling again.  I just couldn’t help but laugh at the whole thing.

     

    Tomorrow I grab a vespa scooter and hit the road.  Time to explore with the camera.