My recent business trips

Cape Palliser Lighthouse

Napier Beach

Tongariro Crossing Landscape

Tongariro

Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. If you look closely there are ridges cut in the rock that give the look of pancakes staked on each other

View from the top of Queenstown. Amazing how pretty this country can be when it doesn't rain.

Queenstown

Boat ride to Milford Track. Count the layers of land masses. As soon as you passed 1 of them, another appeared. That is the landscape for virtually the entire south island.

Milford Track mosses. The rest of the pictures were taken on the Milford Track.

Colorful wetlands

View from McKinnon Pass (VfMP) at the peak of the hike.

VfMP

VfMP

VfMP

VfMP

VfMP.  My brother and I love porta-potties and their clever names. Sadly, Oceania didn't have great names for their porta-loos, but this one at McKinnon Pass has an excellent view when doing #2. I'm a poet and didn't know it.

VfMP

VfMP

VfMP

Sutherland Falls. The highest waterfall in NZ at 1904 feet. It was the like the water just fell from the sky. 

Our last morning had just perfect conditions without a breath of wind.

See above

Typically when I take pics of mountains, like the Alps or Canadian Rockies, when holding the camera horizontally, the whole of what I see will fit into the frame when I zoom out because we are standing from a vantage point somewhere in the middle of the mountain. On this track though, because we were so often standing at the very base of the mountain, the tops of these peaks, though significantly shorter than peaks in their more famous ranges around the world, wouldn't entirely fit into the frame unless I held the camera vertically

MacKay Falls



I didn't really go on the hike, I just stood by this sign saying that I did in case any of you asked for proof. Notice my visually stunning clothing ensemble. I look like those rocks.

So there you have it. Visual representation that I am indeed conducting business down here with a bit of pleasure mixed in. Get ready for some ornate temples, rice paddies, small villages, unique cuisine, awesome skylines, and people pics in the upcoming Asian installments of my photos.