- A4 (portrait)
- NSM 300gsm, (New Silk Matt – which is a high quality coated paper).
- This heavy grade card facilitates the images being used for postcards or mounted for insertion into a picture frame.
- Spiral bound on short (top) edge with calendar hanger (white spirals)
- Printed locally
- $25NZ retail inc. GST (shipping, depending on where-to, maybe extra)
- Archival Quality Crystal Clear Bag for display and handling (if requested, then it’s supplied). Resealable and sustainable.
Ph/txt: +64 21 539 859
Californian poppies abound throughout Central Otago from November on-wards. Also known as Cemetery Poppies. Because that’s where the old timer gold miners often planted them.
They’re very well suited to Central Otago, but you will find them flowering all throughout New Zealand. Despite the fact they’re related to the opium poppy, they do have very different effects and are not narcotic like the opium poppy.
You can for example add fresh flowers to hot water for a relaxing herbal tea before bed, or you can dry the flowers to use them in a tea blend.
An old and well preserved rabbiter’s hut on Long Valley Ridge Road en-route to the Serpentine Church (see below). Incidentally it became known as the Serpentine, after the winding path of nearby Waimonga Creek.
Driving or biking on this road reaches a significant and isolated scenic reserve. There is a great feeling of remoteness. Further on it shows many of the gold extraction technologies of the 19th century: a stamper battery, water wheel and church.
Very dry 4WD conditions are necessary or it’s an all-day walk or mountain bike ride.
Black Peak/the Harris Mountains as seen from Lismore Park in Wanaka. It’s often mistaken by visitors for Mt Aspiring (which cannot be seen from the town itself, but can be on the start of the road up the Cardrona Valley towards the Crown Range).
Clynes cottage 1896 lower Nevis Valley. Built originally for gold mining.
Surrounded by golden grasses, rose hip bushes, native matagouri, and the occasional willow for shelter the cottage is a rustic relic in a landscape marked by the remnants of gold mining. What truly makes this image precious is its evolution – from a miner’s abode to a cherished holiday home, embodying the timeless Kiwiana style. This transformation mirrors Central Otago itself, adapting to the kinder summers while preserving its historic charm.
“The CMEs all arrived largely at once, and the conditions were just right to create a really historic storm,” Elizabeth MacDonald, a space physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in the statement.
11 May 2024. 5.57 pm SW view from the Snow Farm, Cardrona Valley. approx 1000m above sea level.
I had an inkling that there would be an auroral display on this night, so I stayed on the mountain in my camper truck. And on sunset photographed the fence, not realising that the arc would manifest in the west later (and the east). So as there was such a difference in light strength I was able to merge the two exposures later to get this effect.
A little history about the project:
Since 2017 I’ve had to make many trips Wanaka < > Dunedin once monthly. Actually for health treatments, and thankfully I stayed fit enough to explore much of Central Otago in my 4wd camper each time, often parking up for the night, then walking lots before dark.
Brian and Diane Miller of lifelogs.co.nz in Dunedin insisted I consider the project, having seen my earlier rough and ready calendar for 2024. And once I’d committed to it, have offered lots of invaluable advice and editing suggestions.
Another big thanks goes to Graeme and Rosanne at MCK Print in Dunedin.
The Serpentine church is one of those places that many have heard about, but don’t quite know how to get there.
“Cost £100. Contributed by the diggers. It stands at an altitude of 3100 feet – when built the highest church in New Zealand.
The first service is described as follows, “the minister being late the congregation of miners, after waiting for some time, went down to the hotel for refreshments and drank deeply to keep out the keen July air, keener then ever at this altitude.
The service opened with the well-known psalm and an encore was demanded by the congregation. The preacher after expressing very strong disapproval, went on with the service which was however abbreviated”
Not many services were held because of the small number of inhabitants, and the difficulty of access.”