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 🙂