• 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.