Tag Archives: Landscape photography
The quest for our dream island in Fiji
Because there is so much real life into long-term travelling I always smiled when, over the last few months, someone wished us ‘Enjoy your holidays’. It’d be too long, and probably pointless, to explain to those who are not familiar with the concept of extended trip our reluctancy to call our round-the world journey a vacation. However, I don’t have any issue with admitting that our stay in Fiji – which comes to an end in a few hours, when we board a plane to Los Angeles – had the flavour of a break from ‘real life’ and from the demands of travelling.
I suppose our thirst for adventure and exploration took a backseat to our need to lay on a sun-chair, relax, and enjoy the idyllic, Fijian island paradise experience with all that it entails.
On our first night in Nadi, we were still confused as to what to do, and looking at the map didn’t help: with so many islands out there, in a country that has more water than land, we just couldn’t decide which was the best way to make the most of our Fijian experience. Gathering all the recommendations we got from other fellow travellers and friends we finally figured out that it made sense to restrict our ambitions to the Yasawa islands only, avoiding the temptation of trying to do too much in a short time.
Once we bought our island hopping pass (the Bula Pass – which is a popular option with travellers based in Nadi) we jumped on the Yasawa Flyer and our quest for the dream island began.
Romana chilling on the Yasawa Flyer
The view from the deck of the Yasaw flyer is pretty scenic with many little, tiny volcanic islands along the way.
We spent the first day – and night – in Kuata, a tiny island with volcanic rocks all around and a beautiful white-sand beach. Kuata was quite scenic and the staff at the resort was extremely nice. We spent a particularly lazy day and the morning after we went to swim with the sharks (the friendly ones!) in an outer reef 20 minutes away from the coast – the highlight of our stay in Kuata.
As the accommodation standard was quite low and the food particularly mediocre, no matter how beautiful the island was and how rewarding was to swim with the sharks – before lunchtime we jumped again on the big boat, the Yasawa Flyer, on the way to other islands.
Scenic sunset on one of the heads of Kuata.
Another image of the same head. Volcanic rocks are a common theme on these islands.
Flicking through the resort names, one caught my eyes: Blue Lagoon, in Nacula (not the actual movie location, but close to it). This resort was included in the pass, but – unlike Kuata – we had to pay an extra fee for the food. Because the fee wasn’t going to be a problem, we decided to go for it and fortunately we were able to secure a double room through the travel desk on the boat.
We arrived at the resort on a small boat which picked us up from the Yasawa Flyer and with Kuata our only term of comparison, this lagoon seemed a world away from what we’d seen the day before: we kind of felt this was going to be our dream island. The clear blue water revealing a stunning reef to snorkel around, the coconut trees, the perfect, clean white-sand beach, the neat accommodation, together with decent and varied food and a staff with great customer service skills slowly killed our commitment to see other islands.
It became increasingly difficult to leave Nacula, so we ended spending 4 nights (including our wedding anniversary, on the 27th of June – when we received a present from the management), and the majority of our 6 night Bula Pass.
How can you not love a beach like this?
Even at dusk the colour of the water was pretty amazing.
As the beach is facing west, there are some stunning sunsets to be enjoyed at Blue Lagoon. That day the clouds had kept the sky quite gray and dull, but at dusk a break in the cloud revealed stunning colours.
The view from our seafront villa. I mentioned in the post that the management gave us a gift for our wedding anniversary... well this was the gift: they gave us this villa for two nights - thanks guys!
This was the bedroom of the seafront villa.
Our veranda. Simply amazing 
One of the employees at the resort and our guide during the visit to Nacula's village. Unlike Kuata, which is tiny and has only a resort on it, Nacula is a relatively big island and has 4 villages and several resorts. Resorts mostly employ local people, contributing to the local economy.
Children from Nacula's primary school.
A lady from the local village giving us our welcome garland.
Children from the local village.
It was so funny the way these children posed. They may have a future as Fijian gangsta-rappers.
This girl was quite a character too. She certainly knew how to strike a funny pose.
We came back from the village right in time for the sunset. As the day had been clear enough, the sky was pretty dramatic and I had a lot of fun going back and forth with the tripod from one point to the other along the rocky head of the bay.
This is another picture I took that evening on the head of the bay.
It's been a long time since I've seen skyes as starry as this one. As there are relatively few lights, little pollution, with no roads and few people, the night sky on these islands is pretty amazing.
When we finally left Blue Lagoon, we went to spend the last night of our pass on an island called Naviti, which, like Kuata was nice, but basic and not as stunning as Blue Lagoon in Nacula. I guess after Blue Lagoon it’s going to be difficult to be impressed by other beaches.
On the boat that took us to the Yasawa Flyer, the day we left Naviti.
Two local guys working at White Sandy Beach, the resort we stayed in Naviti. Like most resorts, White Sandy Beach employes local people, some of them have studied catering or tourism in school.
It’s been a quite short stay here in Fiji, and tonight we’re alredy heading to California – the last stop before we actually go home. It’s hard to believe that our trip of a lifetime is coming to an end, but on the other hand we’re so looking forward to being back home with our friends and families.
3069 kilometres on the roads of New Zealand: Goodbye camper-van
It’s time to leave New Zealand. After 3069 km in a camper-van we finally arrived in Auckland, which is our last stop before we board a plane to Fiji tomorrow (well, ash cloud permitting…)
Our trip is slowly coming to an end, with Fiji and California being our last destinations: in about a month we’ll be back to Europe and we’ll be starting a new life. Making plans for our next future is proving a quite exciting and energizing exercise and we feel like we have a number of good things to look forward to in our lives. Surely enough, also owing to all the inspiring people we met along the way, we gained a clear idea of what changes we want to make in our lifestyle and that can’t be bad if we are to figure out ways to make those changes happen :)
But I’ll expand on our post-trip plans in the future, now back to New Zealand. Travelling in a camper-van around the two islands has definitely been one of the highlights of our round the world trip and something we will never forget. In a way, the camper experience has entailed a journey-driven approach to travel: the road – the journey itself – was the destination, rather than a specific place. This is totally different from what we used to do in Asia, where the road was for us just an ‘interim’ between a place and another.
Even though it may look like we’ve done everything in a hit-and-run fashion without delving deeper into it, I can assure you the road-trip had a very intense flavour, and driving through the country’s scarcely populated roads was a great, cost-effective way to see those awe-inspiring landscapes made of green hills, snow-capped mountains, reflective lakes and rugged deserted lands which, in my opinion are the real essence of New Zealand. Plus, the wintery atmosphere really added some magic to the whole experience…
Our days have been pretty much following this pleasant routine: driving during the hours of daylight in search of photographic opportunities, stopping by scenic lookouts here and there, cooking lunch and perhaps making coffee, finding a camper park for the night after sunset, sorting out the pictures taken during the day, connecting to the world through our mobile broadband USB stick, and then going to sleep to leave the day after.
The only exception was Queenstown, which is where we were when we wrote our last post. As we were advised against driving to Milford Sound on the basis that the road may be icy and therefore dangerous, we ended up buying a day-tour which included bus transfer and cruise on the fiord. The weather was quite crappy that day which prevented us from taking the postcard type of pictures we were after, and made it difficult for us to capture the beauty and the atmosphere of the place.
Organized tours to Milford sound stop by this scenic lookout named mirror lakes. The name is quite self-explanatory and this image is a panorama obtained by merging several vertical shots.
Another lookout point on the Milford road. When I took this picture the weather wasn't that bad, but it got worse as we approached the fiord.
Milford Sound. A rainbow makes it's way through the clouds.
Stirling falls, Milford Sound. This is one of the two permanent falls in Milford sound. When it rains, as it was the case with us when I took this picture, many other falls appear on the rugged limestones peaks. Seeing the water coming down with such a violence was such a powerful spectacle.
When we finally left Queenstown we headed north in the direction of the glaciers. Again, the rainy weather put us off photography-wise, and also jeopardized our visit to lake Matheson, which is one of the most photogenic (and photographed) spots in New Zealand.
As the weather improved we took the scenic Great Alpine Highway heading west, but before we hit Christchurch we turned north to Kaikoura where we arrived at the end of the day, just in time to secure a powered site at a random camper park along the way.
On the way to the Glaciers we stopped by Lake Wanaka to take this picture. The few clouds weren't threatening enough to let us imagine how rainy it would get in the afternoon.
A photo of Franz Josef, one of the two most popular glaciers in New Zealand, the other being Fox. This is the closest thing to a nice picture I was able to come away with. As you can see it was quite foggy and the light was rather flat. The picture was taken from the sentinel walk viewing point, which is the closest to the car park and the one that made more sense to go to, given the amount of rain...
We stopped by this river on the way to Kumara Junction, where we spent the night before hitting the Great Alpine Highway. Sceneries like this are very common in the south island. What struck us was the blueish/greenish colour of the water, which we found out later, is due to the effect of bits of rocks and minerals in suspension.
We drove on the Otira viaduct as part of the Great Alpine Highway - During the first part of the drive you literally drive among the mountains. I was afraid we would get snow or ice but fortunately it wasn't the case.
In the middle of the route, driving through the Arthur's pass the landscape becomes flatter, but in no way less interesting.
Lake Pearson, at the western edge of Arthur's pass. The good thing about travelling in a camper is that at anytime you can choose to have a meal or a coffee with a view. This was the case when we decided to stop by this lake for our daily lunch break
Kaikoura was our last stop in the south Island. The morning after we moved to Picton to catch a ferry to the north island. The ferry was one of the most expensive things we’ve paid for in New Zealand. When we were told that it was 363 NZ$, 200 of which constituted the camper fee, Romana’s face went white – we knew it was going to be expensive but we couldn’t imagine it was THAT expensive. But hey, our camper couldn’t swim, so there was no other way we could get it across the Cook Strait
Kaikoura's coast is pretty rugged and the sea was particularly wild the night we arrived. We thought we would wake up early to see the sunrise on the coast and take some pictures. The whole seascape was quite dramatic with waves 'swallowing' even the higher rocks.
As we'd made a firm commitment to see the sunrise on the coast, having overslept by a couple of minutes prevented us from having breakfast at the camper park before hitting the road. Therefore after some shooting at the place above, we moved to another nice spot on the coast (again, we were able to choose our view ) to stop by, make coffee and eat our cereals with milk. Because the view was so nice I couldn't resist delaying my breakfast by another couple of minutes to do some more shooting.
We took a short drive on the Kaikoura peninsula before heading to Picton in search of nice views and photographic opportunities. This is one of the images we've taken.
View from the top of the Kaikoura peninsula looking south. Only a multi-shot panorama like this could actually capture the actual sense of space I felt in front of that view.
I was in a multi-shot panorama mood that morning, so I captured the view looking north too
A man on the ferry to Wellington enjoys the views from the upper deck. When I shot this picture I was sitting comfortably in a sofa in the upper lounge - if I'd gone out on the deck I certainly would have missed the moment. Fortunately the window through which I took the picture wasn't too dirty
As the ferry dropped us in Wellington, we thought it was a good idea to spend the night there and take a peek at the city the following morning. The rain caught us again after a visit to Te Papa Tongarewa (New Zealand’s most visited museum) and after lunch we set off to Lake Taupo, from which we took the thermal explorer highway, which runs across a number of active geothermal areas. This was probably the highlight of our time in the north island.
The huka falls have nothing to do with the geothermal activity of the region, however this is the first attraction on the Termal Explorer Highway, 7 kms north of Taupo. The huka falls have a flow rate ofa massive 220,000 litres per second. No pictures of the falls I have seen so far (including this one) is able to capture the violence of this powerful stream of water.
Craters of the Moon is the next attraction on the highway. It is a very active geothermal area with craters, fumaroles and a mud pool.
Craters of the moon - The vegetation inside and around the craters comprises mosses and ferns.
Champagne Pool, Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. This is a major attraction in the geothermal region and it's well worth a visit. The champagne pool is arguably the most photogenic sight in the whole park.
Romana looking at the champagne pool. Ok, I admit I messed up with the colour temperature slider
Lady Knox Geyser, Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. Every day at 10.15 a member of the park staff throws some soap into the geyser to make it 'explode' - eruptions can last up to one hour.
Mud pool, Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. A bubble of volcanic mud bursts in mid air.
After Taupo we moved to Rotorua, Waitomo and finally Auckland. During the last leg of our trip we didn’t shoot much and our camera remained in the bag most of the time. As the end of our road trip approached our focus shifted and our conversations about projects and plans for the next future took over.
We’re saying goodbye to our camper-van, but it’s a ‘see you again’ we’re saying to New Zealand. We’re making a commitment to come back one day to get active and do some of the things that people come to New Zealand for, which we haven’t been getting around to do this time – like hiking, rafting, bungee jumping or skydiving.
Now it’s time for some sun and sea. Please ash cloud, don’t interfere with our plans to re-enter the tropics
A cold hello from New Zealand
It’s been a while since our last post, but we haven’t forgotten about our blog and you guys! Australia kept us busy and we will eventually share some stories and pictures about it as soon as we get a chance to catch up with our posting activity.
We’re now in New Zealand, enjoying some stunning scenery and travelling across the country in a cosy portable home Soon after having arrived in Christchurch we picked a previously booked rental campervan and so our road trip began. I guess this is the best way to enjoy New Zealand’s most unique features: its landscapes and its natural beauty.
A picture of our camper-van taken yesterday during our trip to 'Paradise', a semi-deserted area 20 kms away from Glenorchy, near Queenstown. Some of the places in 'Paradise' were used as locations in 'Lord of the Ring'
The camper-van was cheaper than we thought and its rental price includes full cover in case of accidents and other inconveniences. Once we can sleep and cook in the camper, we don’t have a lot of extra expenses (apart from grocery, fuel and camper-van park fees) – which helps a lot keeping our budget under control. On top of that we are completely free to make our itinerary day by day and change our plans as we see fit. To complete the package, we also bought a Vodafone USB stick that enables us to connect to the Internet (and therefore to the outside world) as we move from one place to another. We couldn’t possibly ask for more
As our Facebook followers know already, we first drove a campervan in Australia (we did a rental-relocation from Sydney to Melbourne) and we simply loved that experience. Not only is having freedom and flexibility great when travelling, but also Australia and New Zealand have great roads, infrastructures and facilities for campers, which make your life (and your road trip) easier.
We are now exploring the south island and we quickly came to the conclusion that our initially planned 10 days won’t be enough to fully enjoy the spectacular sceneries this country has to offer. Therefore, we might extend our stay by few more days, even though the cold temperatures (the winter is just starting on this part of the world) are challenging us after more than 6 months travelling in the tropics.
Anyway, here are few pictures of some of the places we have seen so far in our road trip. This is just an appetizer as we have the feeling that we ‘ain’t seen nothing yet’ and the best part has to come. In fact, for a start, tomorrow we are going to Milford sound and from the pictures and reviews we have seen, it seems one of the most stunning places in the world. We are also planning to head to the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers after this, which promise to be pretty amazing sights – way ‘more amazing’ than what we’ve seen so far.
We hope to be able to do more posts and share more pictures in the next few days so stay tuned!
Large spherical boulders like this are found along some parts of Koekohe Beach, near Moeraki, in the eastern coast of the south Island. These boulders are commonly referred to as Moeraki boulders. We were lucky enough to arrive there at the end of the day, just a few minutes after sunset, on our way to Dunedin. The beach was desert and that contributed to enhance the surreal feel.
A group of 'Moeraki boulders' by the sea
Taiaroa head lighthouse, Otago Peninsula, Dunedin. Taiaroa head is popular owing to its mainland breeding albatross colony. The morning we took this picture it was freezing cold and particularly windy.
Albatross flying over Taiaroa Head. Albatrosses are very big birds and their wings can reach up to 3 meters of length.
One of the many scenic views which is possible to enjoy driving across the Otago peninsula.
Sandfly bay, Otago Peninsula. In Sandfly bay it is possible to spot penguins (but you have to come either before sunrise or near sunset) and sea-lions. The car park is a 40 minutes walk away from the viewing points - the cold weather and the strong wind put us off so we decided not to venture into the beach. We wouldn't see any penguins at that time of the day, anyway. But some guys who were on their way back said they saw some sea-lions. We preferred to enjoy the view and then ran back to the warm comfort of our 'portable home'.
Butchers dam, on the way to Alexandra, central Otago. We didn't plan to stop here, but it was the end of the day and when we saw this place from the road we just knew we had to stop by and take a few pictures
Another one from the pictures we took in Butchers dam.
Lake Hayes, Central Otago. Another one of those non-planned stops on our way.
Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown. This picture was taken from one of the many scenic lookouts on the first part of the way to Glenorchy.
One of the mountain ranges that surrounds lake Wakatipu.
Diamond Lake, Paradise, Central Otago.
Another shot from our trip to Paradise yesterday.
A scenic view of a creek running in the middle of Paradise, with mountains as backdrop.
A picture of the same creek but facing the opposite direction from the bridge.
A bird's eye view of Queenstown. We took this picture a couple of hours ago from the skyline gondola viewing point.
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