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S. Miller

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My wife and I recently returned from four weeks in New Zealand. It's been on our bucket list forever and after building it up in our minds for so long, I'm happy to say it exceeded our expectations. We spent nine days on the North Island and the rest of the time in the South Island, putting 2,600 miles on our rental car (shout out to the RAV4 and the 43 mpg we averaged during the trip!).

The North Island is beautiful but the South Island is in a league of its own. Just when we picked our jaws up from the ground from one breathtaking vista, we'd turn the corner and see another view that surpassed the previous one. Truly the most beautiful country I've visited.

The focus of the trip was to see the country and hike some great trails, with photography being more of a "fit it in when possible" aspect to the trip. I was still able to take a ton of shots but there were very few sunrises/sunsets and for the bulk of the time on our hikes, I preferred my iPhone 16 Pro Max over the much heavier Z8/24-120 combo. The one shot I was determined to get was the Milky Way rising over The Church of The Good Shepherd in Lake Tekapo. Imagine my surprise when the Southern Lights crashed the party!!!

Always tough to select your own favs but here are my current Top 10 photos from the trip...all but one of these was with the Z8. C&C encouraged.

Steve

--
www.stevenjmillerphoto.com
IG: instagram.com/stevenjmillerphoto

Lake Tekapo - Milky Way photobombed by the Aurora Australis
Lake Tekapo - Milky Way photobombed by the Aurora Australis

Wai-O-Tapu outside of Rotorua
Wai-O-Tapu outside of Rotorua

View into the Milford Sound
View into the Milford Sound

Milford Sound
Milford Sound

Mount Cook from Lake Pukaki
Mount Cook from Lake Pukaki

Road to Mount Cook
Road to Mount Cook

Key Summit Track in Fiordland National Park
Key Summit Track in Fiordland National Park

Hobbiton Gate
Hobbiton Gate

Hobbiton - The Shire
Hobbiton - The Shire

NZ Sheep - Homage to Gary Larson's The Far Side
NZ Sheep - Homage to Gary Larson's The Far Side
 
Great photos and perfect weather. My wife and I returned 1st of January. We spent the entire month in NZ driving from Te Anau back to Auckland. Milford was a total downpour, but worth it. 1,000s of waterfalls cascading down those mountains. We pretty much had rain every day on the southern island, which was a bummer for Mt Cook and stargazing. I'll have to put up some of my photos from the journey. It's truly an amazing place and super cheap if you're using the dollar!





1816a6cdfff94db8aaf2928d856fe1b9.jpg
 
Daniel B said:
Great photos and perfect weather. My wife and I returned 1st of January. We spent the entire month in NZ driving from Te Anau back to Auckland. Milford was a total downpour, but worth it. 1,000s of waterfalls cascading down those mountains. We pretty much had rain every day on the southern island, which was a bummer for Mt Cook and stargazing. I'll have to put up some of my photos from the journey. It's truly an amazing place and super cheap if you're using the dollar!

1816a6cdfff94db8aaf2928d856fe1b9.jpg
Click to expand...
Thanks Daniel!

We really lucked out with the weather. We had a couple of rainy days when we were in Franz Josef but aside from that, it was mostly sunny and 55-70 degrees most days.

We did have one night of torrential rain in Te Anau, which was perfectly timed between the day we were in Doubtful Sound and the two days we spent in Milford Sound. As you know, because it poured before we got to Milford Sound, there were waterfalls everywhere (the 3rd photo) but by the time we got settled in Milford Sound Lodge and took the boat to the start/end of Milford Track for a hike, the skies cleared and we had great weather for the rest of our stay in Milford Sound.

Sorry you had rain for most of the South Island. Hopefully, you had clear skies in the North!

The entire country is so beautiful. It exceeded my already sky high expectations.

Steve

P.S. Your photo with the waterfalls looks very familiar! Crazy how much runoff there is after it rains.

--
www.stevenjmillerphoto.com
IG: instagram.com/stevenjmillerphoto
 
Last edited:
Beautiful set, #2 and #3 are my favorites.
 
Absolutely stunning
 
Lovely, you do not need a C&C. Thanks for the look. Mike
 
Very nice.

New Zealand is one of the trips we're doing this year and the reason I bought the Z7 we discussed elsewhere. 5 days in San Francisco, 2 days in Aukland, 18 days on the South Island trekking, climbing hills etc and then home via 5 days in Tokyo.
 
George 68 said:
Very nice.

New Zealand is one of the trips we're doing this year and the reason I bought the Z7 we discussed elsewhere. 5 days in San Francisco, 2 days in Aukland, 18 days on the South Island trekking, climbing hills etc and then home via 5 days in Tokyo.
Click to expand...
Well that’s a pretty funny coincidence, George! We had 17 days on the South Island and loved it. Jaw dropping beauty everywhere. Since you’re doing a lot of trekking, you’ll definitely appreciate the smaller Z7 over the Z8 setup I had (and left in the car most of the time). PM me if you have any questions about your trip, though I’m sure you’ve done a ton of research and already have a well planned itinerary.

Steve
 
Excellent shots and very seductive post. You made me think about NZ. I visited almost all European countries, Asia and North America but never thought about Australia and new Zealand. The length of the flight from Canada is scary, but we have to overcome this obstacle. Could you please share the route of your trip? Thanks.
 
Wow! Very beautiful images. Thanks for sharing.
 
What a great trip! Wonderful photos! Thanks for sharing.
John
 
quattro88 said:
Excellent shots and very seductive post. You made me think about NZ. I visited almost all European countries, Asia and North America but never thought about Australia and new Zealand. The length of the flight from Canada is scary, but we have to overcome this obstacle. Could you please share the route of your trip? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Thanks Efraim!

I HIGHLY recommend you overcome the length of the flights from Canada and make the trip to New Zealand (or Australia, though we haven't been there...yet). We flew Newark to Auckland with a 2 hr layover in SFO and our return flights were Christchurch to SFO then SFO to EWR. The domestic legs were 6-7 hours and the Pacific flights were each around 13 hours. We paid extra for more legroom and it was entirely worth it. We ended up getting good sleep on each of the 13 hour flights and had no jet lag on either side of the trip.

As far as the trip itself, we spent 9 days on the North Island and 17 days on the South Island. The North was beautiful but the South was in a different league. If you have a month or longer, I would see both islands, with more time in the South. However, if you have three weeks or less, I would strongly suggest to focus just on the South Island.

As far as our route/itinerary, we started in Auckland, made our way to Wellington over nine days, took the ferry to Picton (with our car), then saw as much of the South as we could before flying out of Christchurch. Specific places we stayed were: Auckland, Hahei, Rotorua, Hastings/Napier, Wellington, Abel Tasman, Punakaiki, Franz Josef, Wanaka, Queenstown, Doubtful Sound, Milford Sound, Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook and Christchurch.

Hope this helps.

Steve
 
We traveled to New Zealand in 2010 and hiked the Milford track.

Truly is the finest walk in the world.

Found that the South Island had its beautiful landscape and the North island was like California.

I aspire to do a milky way picture like yours.

TFS

Bryan
 
myb17 said:
We traveled to New Zealand in 2010 and hiked the Milford track.

Truly is the finest walk in the world.
Click to expand...
Yep. Absolutely beautiful track. We only did 6-mi of it but we did another one in Fiordland National Park climbing up into the mountains. Spectacular views.
myb17 said:
Found that the South Island had its beautiful landscape and the North island was like California.
Click to expand...
We felt that way as well. The North reminded us of California. Places like Hahei were like parts of San Diego (Tardiff by the Sea) while other areas were more like NoCal (Hastings/Napier).
myb17 said:
I aspire to do a milky way picture like yours.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I got lucky with the Aurora photobombing the MW!
myb17 said:
TFS

Bryan
Click to expand...
 
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