Moody skies at Castlepoint

When I mentioned to people that we were going to Castlepoint for the night, I had some very mixed reactions. From 'oh you'll love the scenery of that coastline, I can't wait to see your photos' to 'who or what's at Castlepoint?'. It's a relatively well known holiday spot amongst people in the southern part of the North Island, but it can also be easily confused with another lighthouse at Cape Palliser that's also in the Wairarapa but on the south rather than east coast.

We'd planned this trip a month or so back to coincide with a weekend that we didn't have anything else on -  that in itself is a complete rarity around these parts. For us, it was an opportunity to explore a new-to-us place in New Zealand, and one that was within fairly easy reach as it's only a 2.5 hour drive from Wellington so compared to some of the much longer road trips we take up the country to visit our family, it was a breeze to get there and certainly do-able even just for a one night stay.

I had, in my usual fashion, been checking the weather forecast all week. Early on it had looked pretty rubbish, then it looked good and then somewhat patchy again. So we really didn't know what we were in for in terms of the weather, but I (of course) had high hopes for some photo opportunities during the trip.

 

 

We drove under sunny skies on the way there although after getting over the Rimutaka hills there was one ginormous ominous shower cloud hovering near the coast and I complained to Mark that I thought it looked like it was going to be right over Castlepoint. The closer we got the more I was convinced. But I found myself revising my opinion of whether stormy clouds were a good thing or not a mere hour or so later.

 

 



I'd booked a self-contained unit at the Castlepoint Holiday Park - it was nothing fancy and we took our own sheets and towels but it served our purpose given we spent a pretty short amount of time there in the end - it was literally a place to sit and eat our takeaway dinner, sleep the night away and slurp some breakfast watching the World Cup quarterfinal and then we were on our way again.

After we arrived, we headed straight up to the lighthouse to catch the last hour of sunlight for the day. I had in my arsenal a couple of new photographic toys I wanted to try out - a circular polariser filter and a 10-stop neutral density filter. I might explain a little more about what they do another day for anyone who's vaguely interested!

 

 

 

There are days where the planets align (or in this case the light is just right) and every shot you make has you doing an internal fist pump. I quickly saw how much the circular polariser was helping cut out on glare from the sky and reducing reflections, and found myself wondering why on earth I hadn't started using one years ago - you live and learn I guess!

The skies all around were moody and menacing and I found myself with goose bumps taking shot after shot - and not from the cold - although it was pretty bracing up near the lighthouse with strong westerly winds whipping up all around us.

The climb up to the lighthouse only takes a few minutes, and from there you can climb higher again up a wooden staircase to the top of the point with panoramic 360 degree views towards land and out to sea.



From here, you can climb down the wooden staircase onto the rocks which is safe on a day where sand and sea spray aren't billowing around, safe enough for us that afternoon but it wouldn't have been the next morning with a southerly swell churning up the water good and proper.

The skies  at this point were utterly incredible as I think you can see.

I really haven't touched up those colours I promise - they really are as shot!

When it came time to climb back up to the lighthouse I was in total awe of this cloud formation.

Makes you realise how small you really are up against the forces of nature.

The sun is still setting at its earliest at this time of the year (before 5pm) and with the clouds all around, the light disappeared fairly quickly, leaving behind a glow in the sky that just begged to be captured.

 

 

I was against both the clock and the weather trying to get some shots on the beach with the glow reflected in the wet sand as the localised showers that had been threatening the whole time decided right at that moment to try and pelt us. I reluctantly gave up on more camera shots after getting a few spots of rain on the lens and resorted back to my phone for the last few shots of the day.

Mental note to self, I will NOT be complaining about the skies being too cloudy or stormy as the moodiness added an incredible element of atmosphere into all these photos that I wouldn't have changed for a moment.

As the night drew in, we drove a few kilometres up the road to the local Whakataki hotel to get takeaways for dinner - the boys happily amused themselves with the ping pong table and darts until the food arrived - and it was surprisingly good considered we were out in the wop wops and it was your typical local yokel hotel!

After the boys were in bed, there was enough time for a glass of red wine and chocolate munching while watching an old school Midsomer Murders on TV1. But an early night was called for, we had a date with the dawn the next morning.

to be continued......

 



 

Up where the air is clear {Wellington city photography}

There aren't many capital cities in the world as compact as this. Where you can get up at 6am on a dark winter's morning. And be here within 15 minutes. Knee deep in figuring out what shutter speeds and ISO I should be using.

I found the concrete block structures made an interesting foreground subject in a few of my early shots - getting myself right down near to the water in early shots.

However, I hadn't banked on the lovely still water lapping just a few inches from me suddenly being overtaken by rogue waves from the 6.30am Interislander ferry sailing powering its way out of the harbour. I may have actually let out a few squeaks of terror as I grabbed the camera and tripod had to jump up higher and higher as the waves seemed intent on capturing me.

High tailing it to higher ground to escape getting a drenching. And then within a couple of minutes, it was back to normal. It was so odd to have been right there to experience it, hear the waves crashing and then gradually moving back to a swirling eddy, and then.....nothing.

I could have stayed here longer but the pull and promise of a sunrise was getting stronger.

And the sky was lightening behind me. I would need to move quickly.

I'd had high hopes for watching the sunrise from Baleana Bay, but I knew as soon as I got there that it wasn't going to meet expectations.

So I jumped back in the car and hightailed it up the hill. To this. Oh my.

Oh my city. How could one not fall in love with you?

Here you are in splendour lifting dusky eyes to await the sunrise, while only a few miles away the valley remains shrouded in fog.

And then it comes.

Slowly, surely. The break of day.

Until the whole earth is filled by its glory.

This photo above, my clear favourite from this day. The sun flare turned out better than what I could even have tried to photoshop in afterward.

And as the sun climbs higher, another ferry carves its swathe through the harbour. I'm well out of reach this time though!

Every part of the city begins to awaken to the sun's touch.

I note the famous Wellington sign that has been giving a make-over to 'Vellington' this past week or two in celebration of the launch of the new What We Do in the Shadows vampire movie made and directed right here in Wellington by two of our very own, Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement.

From up here, it's hard to know quite where to look with 360 degree panoramic views every which way you turn.

The new Clyde Quay apartment and shopping complex is a stunning addition to the city scape (mid centre of the photo above and below), and will bring a new lease of life to this part of the city when it opens this month.

And from up here, where the air is clear, even the far-away wind farm seems close enough to touch.

And for one more moment before I must pull myself away to the realities of the day, I gaze upon the great and glorious morning beauty.

And smile. Today I am right where I am meant to be.

27/52: Exploring Rivendell and Kaitoke Regional Park

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

Mylo: you had a bit of a face plant while zooming down the street on your running bike one afternoon. I was busy upstairs painting our bedroom (will it ever end!) and had to come running down two flights of stairs to find you distraught in the garage.

Apart from a bump and graze to the chin and hand you were (thankfully!) ok. But we did remind you how we would rather you NOT be biking on the road even though we live in a fairly quiet cul-de-sac. I know it's difficult when the other kids you play with are choosing to go on the road but I hope that this might have persuaded you to choose a less dangerous option.

 Feeding the ducks in Kaitoke Regional Park - you can hardly even see your graze now - phew!

There goes our fresh bread for the week!

Noah: I am enjoying your reading so much at the moment. With words like 'confident' and 'slaughtered' being read with ease, it's great to see how quickly you can get through chapter books.

Although the other night you came home from Cubs and made us laugh when you said a lady had come to talk to you about 'conversation' when you meant 'conservation'. An easy mistake to make my love.



You love being in the outdoors and were pushing us to do longer walks while we were away

on the weekend!

You also came home a bit gutted that the annual Cubs camp just happens to fall on the same weekend of Mylo's birthday and Nana and Poppa will be here so you may have to miss it this time round. There will be others in the future, but I know it's hard not to be disappointed when you are so excited to be a part of what's going on there. We love your enthusiasm.



Exploring Rivendell - one of the LOTR film locations. Here you are measuring up against the

LOTR characters - we discovered you are bigger than a hobbit but smaller than a dwarf!

A night at Petone Pier {long exposure photography}

You'd be forgiven for thinking I was a little bit crazy on this day. Not only had I been out at 6am catching an amazing waterfront on fire sunrise in the morning, but I went back out and did it all over again in the evening.

In my defence it had been a gloriously fine and still day and I hadn't had the opportunity to capture many end-of-day shots so I thought I had better seize the moment.

The pier at Petone had been on my list of spots to visit around Wellington for a while and in my head I'd calculated that it could be a better sunset destination rather than sunrise based on where I knew (or thought I knew) the sun would go down.

I didn't however factor in the fact that the sun was sinking a lot further north in winter and I'd expected it to go down over the city. Boy was I wrong. By the time I got there at 4:30pm, the sun had all but sunk behind the Maungaraki hills already!

Yet again, another reason why the pros (which I am not!) would go and scope out the location first to find this out.

The Petone pier (or wharf as it says here) is one of the longest in the harbour stretching some 400 metres out into the water - I had to go on Google Maps to try and work that out! It's a favourite with fishermen and the Dominion Post ferry that calls in at Somes Island (seen in the distance top left below) also stops here on certain sailings too.

In the end, it didn't really matter that the sun had already disappeared.

The sky decided to put on the loveliest show of pretty pastels instead. The shot above of the shed is probably my favourite of the day.

What is about having a camera and a tripod in tow that makes people a) think you're a professional - which I'm not! and b) want to strike up a conversation?  I had a guy who was fishing come up and chat to me twice during the session.

I'm sure he wasn't trying to chat me up - looking elegant as I was in my puffer jacket, jeans and woolly hat! He wanted to know what camera I had, what lenses I used and I wasn't sure I was actually going to get rid of him at one point. He seemed harmless enough though.

There he is in the shot below walking over to have a chat. I told him he'd blurred my shot (although in a good way!).

I love the colours they've used at the pier - aquamarine and turquoise go rather nicely with the water don't you think?

Much as I probably could have stayed a little longer, I knew I couldn't dilly-dally around as Mark had a date with his mate to watch the AB's v England game so after one last shot looking back up the pier towards Petone (how long do I look reflected in the shot below!) I had to call it a day.

But not just any day. A day that had started with a waterfront on fire and ended with the day slipping out of its warm pastels into the cool cloak of night.

Life lately...

So apart from taking lots of photos of the boys and the sunrise, what have we actually been up to lately? I thought I'd share some recent happenings in bullet points to get you up to speed:

• We have somehow managed to plan 3 out of 4 weekends away in a row - not sure quite how that happened but it's certainly made for some busy and fun times!
• First up we made a flying visit to Hamilton two weekends ago so Mark could watch England play the All Blacks. I on the other hand loved the opportunity for some bloggy friend catch-ups, firstly with the lovely Leonie (Kiwiatheart) at the beautiful Hamilton Gardens. Whilst there I took a photo in the Chinese gardens that got selected as a bnw_newzealand_ favourite on their Instragram feed.

•  Later in the day we headed out to Dee's place - she of Needle and Nail fame. My boys had such an amazing time playing with Ty and the other kids in their great and glorious outdoors and didn't want to leave! I totally forgot to take any photos as we were having such a lovely chat, but we did come home with something from Needle and Nail for a certain person's upcoming 8th birthday, but that shall have to remain a surprise for another day.
• We also got to hang out with our great friend Tracey and her kids - it was cool to see all four of them on their bikes zooming up and down the country road my parents live on.



• On the trip home we got a glorious view of the mountains in the Central Plateau, Mylo was particularly interested in seeing Mt Nguaruhoe after playing the mountain in his Battle of the Mountains play at daycare recently. 

• We are still painting. It's slow going. But we are on the homeward stretch, and I'm hoping we can do the big 'after' reveal soon.
• Y'all know I'm a massive fan of Coldplay. Like bigger than big. I think my love affair began in earnest with their X&Y album, which only grew more with Viva La Vida and Mylo Xyloto. But I'm sad to say that I'm rot really loving the new Coldplay album Ghost Stories though...it doesn't have enough upbeat anthems for my liking - about the only one that is like that is Sky Full of Stars and the rest are a bit meh. Give me Paradise and Every Teardrop is a Waterfall any day.
• Usually I'm more excited that the shortest day has passed and that it's onwards and upwards to lighter days. This year it's tinged with a bit of regret that this means any dawn photography on future weekends is going to involve even EARLIER starts than 6am. Ah well, it is what they say - you snooze, you lose!
• Speaking of early starts - why is it that a certain 4 year old has decided that the coldest and darkest time of the year is the perfect time to start waking before 5.30am. It seems to be related to needing a wee at this early hour and even if we restrict how much he drinks before bed it doesn't seem to matter! Here's hoping it is just a phase.
• We celebrated our annual mid winter Christmas last weekend (on our only weekend at home for four weeks!) That's 5 years running now that we've kept this tradition and I for one love that it's become such a part of who we are. Over the years we've celebrated with different friends or just on our own as a family. This year it was lovely to be able to celebrate it with our dear friends Jackie and Heidi. Jackie told me that she'd been waiting for an invite for the past five years too.....ha ha! We had a lovely pork roast cooked by hubby, I made a favourite of recent times - my gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate orange cake for dessert, and the boys raced the girls at Mario Kart on the Wii.

• As well as our mid-winter Christmas, Noah had 3 birthday parties to attend in 3 days - which is crazy because he hadn't been to a birthday party for months. Lucky for him they all ended up being on the one weekend we were at home though I guess!
• This weekend we are heading over to Castlepoint in the Wairarapa for a whistle stop one nighter - our first time visit. Of course I'm hoping for some decent weather to get a few shots of the bay and lighthouse - fingers crossed as the weather isn't looking too hopeful!

And that is our life lately!