Spending 18 months living in New Zealand’s South Island gave me the opportunity to explore all over the island, from the Oparara Arches at the top of the West Coast down to Rakiura. I really did try to see it all. With Me the entire journey was my camera (and wife), throughout the journey I captured many spectacular sights and in this blog I’m going to run through five my favourite nature photography spots in New Zealand.
A little about the equipment used throughout the adventure, a camera body that probably should be showing its age at this point a Sony A7 Mk III. Considering the camera I had previously to this was a Nikon 5200d the Sony is a massive upgrade with some incredible low light performance. I had a good range of lens’s for most focal lengths, a 10-20mm cropped sensor lens for those ultrawide opportunities, a 24-70mm f2.8 Sigma lens for that fantastic versatile performance and a 70-300mm Tamron lens for getting up close and personal with New Zealand’s wildlife.
Without further ado let’s explore some of my favourite spots and with them some of my favourite photos taken over the 18 month adventure.
Aoraki National Park
A highlight of most travellers journeys to New Zealand, Aoraki (the tallest mountain in NZ), stands at the head of Lake Pukaki with the Tasman Valley and Hooker Valley running either side of the mountain. During our time in NZ we visited Aoraki 4 times always exploring different trails and locations. This also meant I had the opportunity to photograph it in many different lights, seasons and weather. Being such a tall mountain it is known for being hard to get a clear view of however I was lucky enough that both during the day and the evening a clear sky appeared around the peak. A lot of my favourite photos are actually taken from the journey up to the national park, we stayed multiple times at a campsite in Glentanner that I’d highly recommend to anyone looking to visit.
The Wild West Coast
Venturing north of Westport on the West Coast you come across some of the most remote an unique areas on the entirety of South Island. From staying in accomodation that you had to hike ten minutes uphill from the car park to get to to exploring the very far northerly reaches of the island at Kamarea and beyond the West Coast is unlike anywhere I’ve been prior and since.
Particular highlights included the Oparara Arches near Karamea and the start of the Heaphy Track both absolutely worth the short walks to get to (albeit some slightly dodgy parts of road to get into the Oparara Arches)!
Golden Bay
Right near the north of South Island is an area called Golden Bay, featuring one of the most viewed photos of the 2010s with a Windows wallpaper beach and some incredible caves, beaches, sand dunes and more.
The sheer spectacle and variety of locations was incredible and I wish we’d been able to spend more than the 3 nights we were able to past Takaka Hill. Make sure to go see some of the clearest water in the world at the Te Waikoropupu Springs and if you fancy some delicious fish I’d highly recommend a trip to Anatoki Salmon.
The Catlins
Almost at the opposite end of the country to Golden Bay is an often overlooked area called The Catlins. Within this region a huge number of spectacular waterfalls and beaches can be found, often only a short hike from the main and only road in the region.
We were on one such hike and happened upon a stray dog, not being local to the area we tried knocking on the nearest doors with no joy and ended up having to take the little guy along to an out of hours vet about 45 minutes away (the closest in the area – yes it’s pretty sparse!).
You’re also not far from the most southerly point of South Island here with Slope Point providing a short little walk through some (at the time) pretty boggy fields to reach the marker!
Haast Pass
The Haast Pass joins Lake Wanaka up to the West Coast and the small settlement called Haast. There’s many different waterfalls and trails all along the roadside with some hidden away with no proper car park, do a little search online and you’ll find instructions on how to get to the best of these spots!
Along with the fantastic waterfalls there’s incredible valleys and walks that stretch high up into the mountains with a particularly popular one being Brewster Hut, unfortunately weather and timings never worked out for us to be able to do the Brewster walk but it’s supposed to be incredible. One thing I would highly recommend that recently re-opened is not far north of Wanaka at the Blue Pools where you’ll find some of the bluest water and a collection of perfectly shaped stones to skim.
Of course these are but a few of my favourite spots and there’s one major spot I’ve left off this list that will actually be getting it’s own dedicated blog somewhere down the line. A hint, It’s two words and starts with a ‘D’ and ends with a ‘D’.
