Back in April my son and I went on a 3-day hiking mission to visit the spectacular Brewster Glacier. Getting here involves an unrelenting climb involving a vertical gain of 1,300m over 5-6 hrs, but it’s oh so worth it. This shot was captured at a lookout over the small meltwater lakes below the glacier. From here down to our campsite it was a steep scramble through a maze of bluffs; would not be fun to descend in wet or icy conditions, nor if you have a fear of heights!

This time last week I was chasing down an amazing hoar frost event in the Mackenzie Basin. A few shots here, but check out my YouTube video posted today for a full rundown; includes a checklist of what to look out for if you ever hope to catch one of these rare events. Link in bio 🤟🏻

Mt Sefton | 3,151m. Even though it’s only the 4th tallest mountain* in Aoraki / Mt Cook National Park, for my money Mt Sefton is definitely the most dramatic. I’ve driven the highway into Mt Cook many times, but wow, that moment you round the corner near the airfield, and see this glaciated behemoth rising almost vertically from the valley floor, it has my jaw on the floor every time. * topographical prominence of at least 300m

Who’s looking forward to a frosty winter? 🙋🏼‍♂️ Fingers crossed for many chilly morning missions - just like this one from late June last year.

Tititea / Mt Aspiring (3,033m), viewed from near our campsite at Brewster Glacier. I’m just a few days away from finishing my video from the Brewster trip, can’t wait to drop it on YouTube! #NikonCreator #MyNikonLife #NikonNZ

Over the years I‘d seen a couple of images of this gem and thought I’d love to see it for myself one day. From the beginning I knew roughly where in New Zealand it would be, but it was still a vast search area. Subsequently, every time I visited this neck of the woods I went on multiple off-track missions into places that looked viable on maps/aerials. But alas I never found it. Undeterred, by mid-2022 I’d narrowed it down to a couple of places and the pieces of the puzzle came together soon after. In early 2023 I was back in the area, and much to my delight, finally found it. I visited the waterfall twice – once in the evening (last image) and once in the morning (first image). The light wasn’t super flash but the joy of discovering this beautiful place, and spending a bit of time there, was much more rewarding than coming away with a portfolio image. For me, much of the fun of photography comes from the journey and the discovery. Of effort expended and chance encounters with amazing places and incredible light. In the search for this gem I came across several other equally beautiful spots which I might not have otherwise found. When I posted a couple of Stories of this waterfall back in January I immediately had a flurry of messages asking “where is it?”. As I do with all such requests where I’ve intentionally not identified the location, I respectfully declined to say. In a world where wilderness and places without swarms of humans is increasingly hard to come by, I reckon some places should be left difficult to find.

At the end of 2022 I completed a solo traverse of the Southern Alps, covering 55 km of remote and rough terrain over four long and exhausting days. The Three Passes Route is easily one of the most incredible hikes I’ve yet done, with some of the best scenery New Zealand has to offer. My full write-up of the trip, a bunch of new images, a video, and a route map are all the link in my bio. If you have any questions about the trip I’m very happy to answer them here 😊.

These aren’t photographs 😊. These are screen grabs from a video of my solo adventure tackling the Three Passes Route, which I dropped on YouTube a couple of days ago. It’s taken me the best part of a couple of months to edit together and I’m super happy with the results. The full video is linked in my bio, hope you enjoy! If you have any questions about the capture or editing process, or about the adventure itself, feel free to ask in the comments.

I realise I’m a little late, but Happy New Year! Hope you’ve all had a wonderful start to 2023. So far this year I haven’t got my camera out so here’s an image I captured at Castlepoint in 2022. A beautiful spot to take in the views, but a slightly disconcerting place to be when the wind is blowing … it’s a very long fall off the cliffs to the sea below.

In many ways my 2022 has been much like my 2021. In both years the first half was filled with some great photography adventures exploring new places. In the second half my day job became all consuming and I barely picked up the camera. Despite that, the first half of 2022 did deliver a lot of great conditions and I came away with several images I’m really happy with. Some highlights are in this post and there are many more over at my year in review blog (link in bio). Today was my last day of work for the year and it’s fair to say I’m really looking forward to the upcoming break. I have a couple of photography adventures planned into some remote areas of the South Island and have my fingers crossed for fine weather. All going well I’ll post a few Stories throughout. Thanks for all of your support this year. Hope you have a wonderful festive season and catch you again in 2023.

Up until a few weeks ago all my previous viewings of Mt Taranaki had been out a plane window. Great to finally see this incredible stratovolcano in person, and feeling lucky I had a fine weather window in which to do so!

I can’t believe it’s taken my entire lifetime to get to Castlepoint in the Wairarapa. What a place! Taken with the @nikonnz Z7II and Nikkor Z 14-24mm f2.8 S. It needed to be a long exposure as it was captured in near dark conditions (to the eye at least).