I recently returned from a week-long trip down to the South Island, specifically Queenstown, Glenorchy, and Twizel. My goal was to try and capture some beautiful autumn colours, but being early April I wasn’t sure what the conditions would be like (the colours are usually best towards the end of April). While things didn’t go quite according to plan, I did end up capturing some photos that I’m happy with. Here’s a summary of my trip, along with some of the photos I managed to get.
Days 1 -4: Queenstown
On my first morning, I went to Lake Hayes for sunrise. As I was driving near the lake, I noticed the water wasn’t looking very calm due to the slight breeze, so getting some reflection shots wasn’t looking promising. Once I got to the lake, I did manage to find a sheltered spot where there were some reflections so I composed my shot and waited for sunrise. Luckily the sunrise was pretty nice and there were some fantastic pink clouds.
After finishing the shoot, I decided to head to Arrowtown to see if I could get some shots of the amazing autumn colours that it’s renown for. Unfortunately the colours hadn’t quite turned yet, it was maybe another 2 weeks before the trees would turn golden.
After getting a nice coffee in Arrowtown, I stopped by the Shotover River and grabbed a shot from the bridge.
I returned to Lake Hayes for sunset but as I arrived it began to rain quite heavily, so I gave up and returned to my accommodation. Back at my motel (which was only 15 mins away) conditions were a lot better, but the problem was I didn’t know of any locations to shoot in that area. Since I had nowhere else to go, I decided to just walk towards the Kawarau River which was only a few minutes away. To my surprise I actually found a reasonable place to take some photos, which is just as well as the sunset light ended up being quite dramatic.
I was so impressed by that location that I returned there for sunrise the following morning and got some reasonable photos.
The weather for the remainder of my time in Queenstown wasn’t great. One of the locations I planned to visit during my stay was Deer Park Heights. This is a working farm with some incredible scenery, some of which was used in the Lord of The Rings movies. The park had been closed for many years and only re-opened in late 2020. The weather still wasn’t great but on my final morning I decided to visit the park regardless. While I didn’t get any landscape photos that I was happy with, I did get to feed and pet some of the animals on the farm, which was a fun experience! I’d highly recommend visiting here especially if you have kids (or love animals).
Days 5-7: Twizel
Twizel is one of my favourite places in New Zealand for landscape photography. The town is dotted with lots of lakes (e.g. Lake Poaka, Lake Ruataniwha, Loch Cameron, Kelland Pond) which are surrounded by golden trees during autumn, and these make for stunning reflection photos. During this trip, however, there was quite a bit of wind and rain about which ruled out those reflection photos. On the second morning, it was raining when I woke up which normally means I won’t even bother heading out for sunrise. However I noticed a clearing in the clouds towards the east so figured there was a small chance something could happen by the time sunrise arrived. Things weren’t looking promising at my chosen location though, it was grey and wet so I just sat in my car and kept my eye on what was happening out east. And something did happen! While it was still raining where I was, the sun managed to break through the clouds and produced one of the most spectacular light shows I’ve ever seen. I quickly stepped out of the car, desperately trying to find some sort of composition, and ended up snapping this photo.
On my final morning I finally got good weather and calm conditions, so I went to Lake Poaka in the hope of finally getting some nice autumn reflection photos. While I did get some photos, they weren’t really up to scratch as the sky was just too boring. No clouds or colour to speak of. Needless to say I was pretty frustrated – it seemed I was getting weather that was either too bad, or too good! I guess we landscape photographers are quite a fussy bunch when it comes to the type of weather we want.
I started driving back to my motel, a bit despondent about the lack of photos from the area. As I was driving I came across this view of Aoraki Mount Cook with some gorgeous autumn colours in the foreground. I quickly snapped a few shots and didn’t think too much of it, but once I processed them on my computer, I actually found one I really liked.
Day 8: Glenorchy
My final day was spent in Glenorchy. The last time I was here I got an amazing sunrise with incredible colours and not a breath of wind, resulting in incredible reflections on the lake. I knew it was too much to expect anything like that this time, and I was right. Sunset was uneventful and I didn’t get any photos. Sunrise wasn’t very good either, but I did manage to capture this moody shot before dawn, which came out better than I expected.
So that was my trip. At the start of it I had certain photos in mind that I wanted to capture, but due to the weather and conditions, I didn’t really get those. I did get some shots that were unexpected though, so I’d have to say the trip was a success overall.
