Happiness is ...

I picked up my camera recently. Intense again, like I used to be when I wandered the caruggi in Genova. I spent days, simply following a friend & his dog; walking the river’s edge, and Manapouri’s lake-edge bush tracks, with them.

I am still working my way through the results but I feel like my soul was involved. It has been a while since I lost myself in photography, day after day after day.

My music of choice lately (read, on repeat), is Snow Patrol: Live & Stripped Back at Porchester Hall. I was late to Snow Patrol party however I am surely making up for time lost now.

My Queenstown life is a beautiful life. One day I wandered into town, with a friend. We had tickets to hear that incredible New Zealand writer, Witi Ihaemara. And he was so much more than I could have imagined. Another evening, I wandered along to a members-only screening of Liam Neeson’s latest movie - over at the exquisite Dorothy Brown cinema, (20nzd per year membership) in Arrowtown. The bookshop in there almost destroys me, in these days of limited income however, I enjoy the pleasure of browsing. It is one of the most beautifully curated bookshops I know, any place in the world.

Life has a sweetness to it these days. I simply want to savour it …

Following a Fly-Fisherman, Fiordland.

following a fly fisherman.jpg

Sometimes, it takes something difficult, to make you appreciate what you have.

In this instance, it was waking to an unresponsive black screen on my beloved laptop. An issue I have since learned is directly related to the Windows 10 update that I didn’t approve.

I channeled the memory of a clever ex-husband, and recalled him plugging in an external screen, so as to bypass a long-ago black laptop screen.

And it worked again.

The appreciation of what I have came when I had to edit a photo, and there it was on my much bigger, external screen. I had been dilly-dallying about colour calibration, unable to calibrate it myself.

Forced into using it, I’m really quite pleased with the screen quality. I will have to get some work printed, to check that it’s right but really, absolutely, loving this screen.

The foto, a fly fishing trip I tagged along on. There was a point where we forced to leave the immediate river bank and wander through this tunnel of trees.

Fiordland.

Photographing A Takahe Release, in Fiordland, 2019

The Takahē, a New Zealand native bird, was rediscovered in 1948, by Dr Geoffrey Orbell. SInce then, the bird has slowly been making a come-back with Department of Conservation assistance.

The population dropped down to 77, back in 2015 when there was a stoat plague, followed by major flood that caused landslides, killing the flightless takahē. These days, the DOC Recovery Programme is using science-based conservation techniques to develop the population.

And so it was, that I had the extraordinary experience of photographing the latest batch of two and three-year-old takahē, being released in the Murchison Mountains. We picked them up from the Burwood Takahē Centre near Te Anau, checked them over and boxed them.

Burwood is where adult takahē teach the young birds skills they will need to survive in the wild. This release group was the highest number released into the Murchison Mountains. The previous highest number was 29 in summer 2015/16.

DOC Takahē Recovery Team senior ranger Glen Greaves says, “The Murchison Mountains has been considered the home of takahē since their rediscovery there in 1948 yet maintaining a robust population at this site has been challenging.  Achieving this, while also growing takahē numbers elsewhere, is a true measure of the success of our takahē recovery work.

“After battling for decades to bring the Murchison Mountain population up to its natural limit, maintaining these numbers would be a huge reward for takahē staff past and present, and for our partners Ngāi Tahu and Fulton Hogan, and our supporters.

“We look forward to future surveys showing that takahē have once again occupied long vacant territories around the Murchison Mountains.”

“With the overall takahē population growing at more than 10% a year, other suitable sites with low predator numbers for new wild populations need to be found,” says Glen Greaves.

Note that last photograph. A Kea was keen on checking out the inner workings of the Helicopter … and didn’t move until the pilot climbed right up there and shooed him away.

Source: DOC website.

Walker Creek, Fiordland

Welcome to Walker Creek, Fiordland.  My favourite place when I lived in Te Anau.

Technically, the last image isn't the creek, it was actually taken further into the national park, at Mirror Lakes but I added it because it gives you a sense of the same kind of mountains just beyond 'my' creek.

On arriving there, I would make a small seat for myself in the long grass while my dog, Sandie, made herself at home in the creek.  We could spend hours there, dreaming the day away.

When I returned, back in 2012, I was so intent on breathing in both the air and the scene that I didn't take any photographs of this creek.  These images all belong to the Belgian bloke who made a beautiful job of capturing those places I loved to well while I wandered off into dream-mode again.

I yearn for that particular air, the peace of the place and the overwhelming sense of Nature pressing down on me but ... I have also become accustomed to Italy, France and to being here in the centre of the world. 

I am divided in these days, unsure of which place is more for me.  Loving Genova, and loving the memories of home.  Perhaps it's best that I wander a bit longer.

A Beautiful Confusion ...

These days have been about a mix of good friends who have wandered through, coming from the UK and Italy, with New Zealand due at the weekend.  And into this mixture there is also what feels like the end of summer, a yearning for New Zealand, planning for Italy, laundry and dishes and vacuuming, and sometimes ... exploring my photography archives, wishing I had more time to just write too.

A beautiful confusion perhaps.

I feel like a cat, turning and turning and turning again, attempting to settle into my life, clear on a way forward. 

I found myself writing this blog post after searching to see if I had a photograph that captured Walkers Creek, a favourite creek in Fiordland National Park.  That creek my dog used to swim in while I sat on the grassy bank, with a beautiful mountain range directly in front of me. 

I think I wanted an image that confirmed my memories of that place.  It was about 60 kms into the park, back when I lived in Te Anau.  60kms ... like so many of my 'runaway' places.  Anakiwa when I lived on the airforce base back in Marlborough, the Arrow River when I was in Cromwell, and Pilots Beach when I lived out on the Otago Peninsula.

But there was another favourite place and I did photograph it last time I was home.  I was up  recording a New Zealand dawn chorus to bring back to Europe, staying at Hunter and Claire's place.  I was wrapped up in warm clothes, out on the veranda, voice recorder mounted on my camera's tripod when I suddenly saw all that was directly in front of me.

I love this view ... Manapouri, New Zealand.