Last Friday, Ivy, Julia and I loaded up the car and headed to the National Park (about 4 hours away) to join some other members of the photography group.
I was both excited and nervous about this trip, as it would be the first time I would be going out of town without my husband whilst pregnant. And i was worried about getting hungry with no food at hand, or needing the bathroom or feeling sick, and not having my own car to get around. But as usual, my fears were totally unnecessary.
I had a brilliant time and actually had food supplies left over! I got to sit in the back seat on the way there and slept for about 2 hours. so felt great by the time we arrived at the backpackers and met up with the others.
we all got up at about 5:20am the next morning and headed out to try and get some sunrise shots. unfortunately, the sky didn't really co-operate so i wasn't too impressed with my shots. but next up (after breakfast) was a 20 min walk to the tauwhai falls. this was a beautiful spot, and as the group had split up, it wasn't too crowded. talked to some of the more expert photographers that were on site and managed to get my first "long exposure" shot of the falls and the river flowing over the rocks. awesome!
next up, we headed to the Chateau for a bit of a nosey as Ivy and co had not been inside. I've been lucky enough to have stayed here with Josh some time last year as he played there for a wedding. but was still nice to sit in there lounge and enjoy the spectacular view of the snow capped mountains. and use their bathroom :)
after meeting up with the rest of the crew for lunch, we all split up again and headed up to the mountain to get some snow shots. my fave thing about winter in nz is the snow, so i've been a bit gutted about not being able to snowboard this year. but it was so good to just walk in the snow and then sit down and watch all the other snowboarders/skiers. love, love, love the snow!
in the arvo, 5 of us did the silica rapids walk, which is about 2 hours return. gave us great views of the surrounding areas, so we decided to stay up there for the sunset. again, the skies just weren't being co-operative, and so eventually we headed back to the backpackers to meet up for dinner.
dinner was at the Shcnapps bar, which was packed as for some rugby finals game. great atmosphere and great food as usual. Everyone decided to have a party afterwards, and the whiskey came out. always a dangerous move! i slipped away before midnight and decided to sleep in the next morning whilst everyone got up for a 2 hour hike at about 6:30am. had such a nice, relaxing morning before our drive home.
awesome, awesome weekend with some like-minded people!
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