Ciabatta – New Zealand for bread
A quote from Dallas during the Photography Tour, but oh so true. Everywhere you go anything other than white bread is called Ciabatta.

The Doc joked he would run naked down a New Zealand street if he saw another name used. So far The Doc and the New Zealand public are safe.

All Blacks
The Doc never thought it was possible for people to be more sport obsessed than Melbournites and the AFL. He was wrong, it is New Zealand and the All Blacks during the Rugby World Cup.

All Black Milk (yep a black plastic container), All Black Chocolate (Creamy Milk with black wrapper) and even All Black Weet-Bix (black box of course).

New Zealand will go into 12 months mourning if they lose the World Cup. The Doc was here many years ago during a previous loss.

No photo of the milk but here is the chocolate and the Weet-Bix pictures.

The southern half of the The Catlins were not as spectacular as the Northern half. Overall a place of immense natural beauty.

The Doc is now in Invercargill doing some washing (rather exciting when the laundry decided to flood), buying groceries (Coles is called New World and Woolies Countdown here), indexing photos, getting some rest and planning the next part of the trip.

After visiting Bluff and Bluff Hill near Invercargill, The Doc decided not to go a plane ride to the nearby Stewart Island, the weather is too variable at this time of year and the views easily obscured.

So after Mass on Sunday morning he will head to Te Anau and then Milford Sound. After that he heads to the north of the South Island to finish his days of exploring.

In the Campground there are some amazing textures on the gum trees next to the Campervan, enjoy:

Well OK only a thunderhead, but a rather big one.

The Moeraki Boulders are large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach, not far from Oamuru. The technical term for these formations is septarian concretions, these concretions come out of the surrounding mudstone when it is weathered, leaving the boulders on the beach.

The Group visited to the boulders to take photos in quite overcast conditions. Dean set up the Camera and filters for these shots, giving The Doc suggestions for composition. Exposures were varied using 2, 5 and 10 seconds for the portrait shots. The time used plus when you released the shutter materially changed the results.

Not much done in the way of post processing of the images.

The Catlins is a region of NZ south of Dunedin but not quite to Invercargill. It lined up twice when it came to natural beauty. Landscapes, seascapes, creeks, rivers, blowholes and waterfalls. Then add some mountains, hills, beaches, dramatic coast lines including massive seacaves and you start to get the idea.

The Doc is based at Kaka Point, near Nugget Point (great lighthouse and The Nuggets) and not far from Owaka.

Today we take a look at a few of the waterfalls. The Doc liked McLean, Puraunui and Matai Falls the most.

Saint Bathans, formerly named Dunstan Creek, is located on the Maniototo Plain on New Zealand’s South Island.

Saint Bathans was a coal and gold mining town, but today little remains except some historic buildings and the Blue Lake. During the 1860’s it was part of the Central Otago Gold Rush.

Blue Lake is a small lake formed during gold-sluicing, which gives it a distinctive turquoise colour.

The first photo was taken by The Doc on his second visit, but one which he saw on the first. However the light was not right on that occasion. To make this shot work you morning sun on the walls but not the water surface.

Not much post processing on this image, but the sky needs to be darkened a little. Click image to see full size.

Here is a mixture of point and shoot photos. Notice how cold the colours are when I photograph into the sun, bottom right photo.

The Doc has finished the NZ Landscape photography Course run by Dean Cooper and his able assistant Phil Nitchie.

The Doc can say with some confidence we all had a great time, learnt a lot, visited fantastic locations, ate too much and enjoyed each other’s company. The Group comprised of Angela, Jane, Dallas, Susan, Celena, The Doc and a gate crasher know as The SausageMan!

Here is a map of our tour, including a boat trip and a flight around Mt Cook. The GPS datalogger went flat one day, we also travelled from Lake Tekapo to Timuru to Oamura. Click to see full size.

The fame of the SausageMan is spreading. Tonight a song was written and sung (well sort of) at the farewell dinner. Remember this was a photo tour, which impacts the wording. The sad state of lasagne in NZ deserves another post.

The tune was Elton John’s rocketman and the words are:

Dean packed my bags last night

During the New Zealand photo tour The Doc scored a new nickname, the SausageMan^TM.

While at Oamaru the Group was at The Last Post for dinner. The Doc was told people do not order Bangers and Mash for dinner. Luckily for The Doc, the Menu did not have Bangers and Mash but Sausages and Mash, which he ordered. After the meal the waitress referred to The Doc as The SausageMan. For the next 2 days there was jokes galore.

The SausageMan groupies are called weeners. A passionate night out is a sausage roll. There is even a SausageMan pose. See below where a weener (aka Phil) is doing the pose at Cornwell.

What do you call SausageMan when he travels in Germany? A frankfurter.

What is the SausageMan‘s dog called? A hot dog or perhaps a Dagwood dog.

When travelling in outer space he is a Pluto Pup.

There is even a sausage factory, which readers need to work out for themselves. It is no longer Simon says, but the SausageMan says…

The SausageMan has plenty of sauce and sizzle.

The Doc has arrived safely in New Zealand, sometimes known as Middle Earth and home of Hobbits, Rangers, Elves, Dwarves and Orcs. The Doc arrived around 5pm New Zealand time and went out to buy some dinner and enjoy a gelato, as suggested by the taxi driver.

Tomorrow he needs to buy a local sim card for his mobile phone and perhaps enjoy a cruise on the SS Earnslaw across Lake Wakatipu.

Across the road next to the lake are a group of teenagers enjoying a BBQ, the girls are holding their own against the boys kicking a soccer ball around.

The Doc staying at the Lakeside Motel overlooking a Lake Wakatipu. Here is the view out the window looking over the Lake and The Remarkables (which were used as the Rocky Mountains in the Movie Wolverine).