NZ Photography Hotspots - Mt Cook/Lake Pukaki

My blog has segued quite dramatically towards becoming a parenting and relationships column recently. The web has enough of that 'content' already, so I thought I had better get some photography postings up before I find myself sharing my to-die-for pecan and maple muffin recipe with you!

So it is with great pleasure that I announce the release of part 1 of our 2 part Mt Cook photo-guide here.

We have also posted several shots from our recent trip on flickr ,so check them out. Everyone is going gaga over Sarah's shots and I am now feeling inadequate vulnerable and under-appreciated - think I'll go bake a tray of my incredible mocha banana brownies OMG they are sooo goooood!!!! I'll get the recipe up tomorrow ;-)

If you have found us on blogger, remember to drop by our website to view our New Zealand Photography :)

Of Boogers and Bacteria

We're back from Mt Cook, after a reasonably frustrating week of shooting - dodgy weather combined with the requisite bout of daycare-induced illness which has cascaded through three quarters of the family now - with Sarah being in the unenviable position of being the sole survivor, stuck in a house with three lethargic and grumpy patients.

Being the 'last man standing' is almost enough to make you chew on a used kleenex so you can rid yourself of the virally infested Damocles sword that is dripping above your head when surrounded by sickos like this.

Illness is always a tricky one to figure out with kids. You never seem to see it coming, as they generally mask the early symptoms with grumpiness, irrational behaviour, spasmodic outbursts of tantrum-ism and thrown bowls of food. Like I say, you never see it coming, as it just like any other day.

It is not until 11:45 PM (invariably on a Friday night, to maximise doctors and pharmacy costs) when they awake, hallucinating with a 39º temperature and covered in snot that you put two and two together.

Poor old Jack was the second victim of this latest bout and even at 3 years of age, he gave no indication of his decline, other than an onset of 'laziness' while I was dragging him out of for a walk at dusk (in sub-zero temperatures). I drove the poor little fellow like an iditarod dog handler, coaxing him with promises of moro bars and hot chocolates before eventually doubling him up with Indi in the mountain buggy for the walk home in the dark (I did manage to get quite a nice shot though).

The next morning Jack sounded raspier than Judge Judy after a night on the town and was barking like a elephant seal that had ingested a rottweiler whole - 'laziness' explained.

As so often happens, I was next to succumb and that oh-so-familiar wave of guilt accompanied my symptoms as my energy levels plummeted and I struggled to walk from the bedroom to the kitchen - in a motel unit...... of course my symptoms are exponentially more grievous given the well-documented severity of the 'man-flu'

TA

Sometimes you just gotta wait...and wait...

The Big Mountain has not been playing nicely on this trip - but last night things started to look positive - as the cloud cover cleared out of the valley and I headed up to Kea point in the hope of getting a nice mountain portrait.

A pesky bank of valley cloud kept regenerating right in front of the summit for about an hour, up until the last 4 or 5 minutes of light, when it cleared and provided this view of the mountain.

I often find that you just have to keep on waiting until the bitter end, as there is nothing worse than seeing a view like this in the rear vision mirror of your car :-)

If you have found us on blogger, remember to drop by our website to view our New Zealand Photography :)