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A quick recap of the 2018 Richmond Auto Show as my first test use of the Olfi camera.

Swimming with the seals

Kaikoura is home to quite a big Fur Seal colony. They are fascinating animals, and good fun to photograph. I was lucky enough to tag along on a seal swim the other day. This is something I’ve been itching to do since I arrived however, I’ve been a little bit scared to go ahead with it. The boat journey itself was really fun, it was great to take a closer look at the seals on the rocks, especially with all the pups around. At this point, I was ready to get in the water and it was totally worth it. We were told to be very calm and quiet, to just let the seals approach when they feel like it. A couple swam by, took a look at me and swam back to take a closer look. Safe to say my heart was in my mouth at this point, It was so exciting to see how they glide and flip in the water. I was quite impressed as to what my action camera could capture, it’s a handy little thing to have however It’s times like these that I would absolutely love an underwater housing for my camera. One can only dream...

#marine wildlife #fur seals #kaikoura #underwater #olfi #seaweed #newzealand

Copious amounts of rain, waterfalls, dense woodland and mountains as far as the eye can see

What an amazing place the South Island of New Zealand is. I was only gone from Dunedin for a week and we seemed to fit in so much sightseeing in that time. Sadly I didn’t get any photos from Stewart Island, mainly due to the fact I was incredibly seasick from the boat journey across. Let me tell you a little bit about this boat trip; It was a horribly windy day and very wet, we all thought to ourselves “Surely this boat trip is not going to go ahead” but we were very wrong. I was feeling quite anxious at this point, the sea really did look rough. I’ve only ever been on one rough boat journey and that was the ferry crossing to Ireland, this was 10x rougher (maybe a little exaggeration, but I was scared at this point so who cares). Off we went onto the little boat which was designed to navigate across these ‘choppy’ waters. It wasn’t until we were completely open to the elements when we felt the impact of three seas joining together like magnets. At one point the boat was navigating 3 metre swells, there was a constant sea wall higher than the boat on one side, I was terrified to look out of the window. I didn’t know wether to laugh or cry, so I did both! I’m never one to be sea sick, but by the time the rest of the boat were sick in their bags I decided it was time for me to give in. I then heard my friend, between spewing in his paper bag say “Albatross El!”. Now this is true friendship, knowing that I really wanted to see Albatross he peered out of the bag and spoke just so I could see these birds that I’ve always so badly wanted to see. It was worth it. The skipper eventually sat back down in his seat, which reassured me that things were going to get a little calmer from now on. The return journey was a little calmer.

As soon as we got back onto mainland New Zealand we then set off on our journey to Milford Sound. The landscape was stunning, all the way through. Dense woodland towered over incredibly large lakes, waterfalls cascaded down the sheer rock faces and Kea’s were squawking over our heads. Here’s a selection of some of my images just to give you an idea of what I witnessed. I was a little bit obsessed with the waterfalls as you can see.

The image above shows another ferry in Milford Sound. They all took turns to stick their noses into the waterfall on the right. I really enjoyed this bit, there were a select few standing out under this huge water mass dropping down on our heads. It was quite exhilarating to say the least! Below is an image taken afterwards.

Below is a Kea. These are one of New Zealands native birds. It’s a very curious bird and has sadly become quite used to humans, meaning they are fed quite often by passing tourists. You will often find them in flocks amongst all the popular spots in the South Island. Sometimes they’ll even get into your car with you.