Category Archives: Road Trips
Nevis Valley, New Zealand
On the road in BC
A shot I took yesterday while on the road, I love exploring new places.
New Zealand North
Hi friends,
I hope everyone has been enjoying some time off work and been busy out exploring.
I’m currently doing a little restructuring of my business so have been a little tied up lately.
I’m very excited for 2013 and determined to push myself to the next level. There are always new things to learn in this industry.
Thanks for all the support in 2012 and I hope to be working with you again in this New Year.
Here are a few images shot in New Zealand over my holidays.
Bathing in a natural thermal hot spring amongst the forest north of Taupo.
Wild flowers blossom on Te Mata Peak hill tops
A koru fern sprouts new life in the moist New Zealand forest
The crew out exploring at Mt Tauhara
Mike Toogood’s heli rests under the Milky Way in the back yard.
Tui birds have been loving all the fresh flax flowers
Moss covers the trees in some of the forest we walked through.
The Catlins NZ
My first trip to the Catlins was amazing. We headed over from Queenstown yesterday as the surf report was looking good and the weather was sunny. It’s a very beautiful place and with only six hours there wasn’t quite long enough to take it all in.
I have been mostly doing editorial work over the last few weeks in the outdoors which has been a lot of fun. Here are a few shots from our day in the Catlins.
The view looking south when we arrived on the coast
These little guys were so amazing and funny to watch as they came ashore after fishing. It’s a yellow eyed penguin.
A close up of the same yellow eyed penguin in his little flax shelter up the beach.
Rob walks down to the spot - the waves were looking amazing.
The waves were bigger than we thought. It was really grinding down the line.
Rob Mitchell got a few good waves.
The Clutha river flows through the barren countryside between Queenstown and the Catlins .
New Zealand Beauty | 1DX
New Zealand beauty always seems so impressive when I have spent some time away. It seems like there are calendar images around every corner. I have recently done a drive from Hawkes Bay on the east coast of the North Island down the east coast of the South Island to Queenstown.
We have finished production of Transfer Magazine for the year and my focus will now be on shooting for the rest of the year. I have recently upgraded to the Canon 1D X and had some great opportunities to test the new body on my drive south. I hope you like the scenery.
A cyclist heads down Te Mata Peak at sunset.
The new addition to the tool kit.
A stream runs down from Round Hill towards Lake Tekapo.
Nick Hyne admires the view from Round Hill before dropping in.
Another classic old farm house with the caravan outside and lichen slowly building up.
An old caravan backs on to an overgrown jungle on the east coast of the South Island
Haumoana river mouth was breaking perfectly
It was grey and raining for most of my drive south but the 1DX performed very well in the low light. A small hut sits alone amongst the colorful hills of Queen Charlotte Sounds.
I plan to be based out of Queenstown shooting for the next six weeks depending on contracts. Thanks for the support so far this year
Cover
It’s out! Issue #10 of Transfer Snowboarding should be on the shelf around Australia today and will make it to the New Zealand shores in about two weeks.
I’m pretty pumped about getting the cover and some of my biggest editorial shoots from the year landed in this issue.
Below are a few snaps from the coffee table. If you’re calling past a newsagent, pick up a Transfer with your lotto ticket. Thanks for the support friends.
The Afghanistan mission made the cover, yeww
I spent two weeks up in Canada shooting with Jake Koia and Robbie Walker
27 pages of one of the scariest journeys I have ever been on.
We went deep into the New Zealand Alps late last winter
There will be a 50 min doco on our trip which I will have the release date for shortly. Here is a little teaser.
Directed by Richard James, Produced by Alex Cameron
I’m a Travelling Man
I have been up and down the country twice now. There has been a lot of time spent in planes and cars. It went something like this Minnesota-Reno-Salt Lake City-Jackson Hole, back to Salt Lake City- Reno then off to Seattle and now I’m at Baker. What a journey!
Here are a few images from the windows I have had to peer out of along the way.
De icing the plane in Minnesota so we can get flying
Jackson Hole was a pretty cool place. It’s a really country place with lots of cowboys, country music and no tax. Apparently you don’t have to declare how much you earn there. It’s in the richest state in America, Wyoming. The people all seem to love New Zealanders as well - everyone was so nice.
There was a lot of pow, and dry. We had some fun shredding in the gloomy weather.
We stopped into Mike Parillo and Travis Rice’s gallery/work place. They had some very impressive work in there and a very nice working set up.
Then it was back to SLC for a few nights and a quick hike up the good only Grizzly Gulch. I spent a lot of time up Grizzly back in 06/07 and it definitely brought back some memories.
Mark A getting a little turn in as we head back down to the car.
We finally made it to Seattle after a 14 hour drive from Reno. It seems to always rain here. This is what you see most mornings when you warm up the car. Cold and wet, it kind of reminds me of the weather at home in the winter.
We have been to some really nice zones but the snow has been wet and heavy. We haven’t had a dry snow day here yet. It’s made it hard.
The birds are really cool. They are super friendly and will grab food right out of your hand. They made our day after getting stuck on the sled in the gluggy snow.
The Trip to Nowhere
We hit the road all amped for some pow after Tahoe had been dry for a week. The plan was to head up to Seattle and hook up with some NZ crew and Roebucks, then head to Baker and maybe into Canada, but after 8 hours in the truck it all went wrong. We were in the middle of nowhere and the transmission crapped itself. We decided to head back after talking with a mechanic and finding out our diagnosis was right. So we now had an 11 hour trip back home in second gear the whole way. A complete blow out, but it’s just started snowing here now so it should be back on soon.
Long roads into the light
Haha - we had to stop for some snowball fights. Ferret, Jye and Mikey about to take one.
Ink
Bugs decided to get an old Canon AE-1. My old man used to have one of these and it’s what I learnt to take photos on. I love shooting film after shooting so much with my digital. It just has a nice feel.
Forest forever on the drive.
Lots of big pine cones falling now that its warming up.
Road tripping
So we did the trip up to Booti Booti National Park last weekend in search of some waves. It was good to get away from technology (phone, net etc) for a few days and just chill out on the secluded beaches.
The ocean eating away at the land
A few beers back at camp after a big day
We set up camp and got up early the next day to check the surf. It was small but there was a really fun left just down the road in the next bay. I was just stoked not to be surrounded by twenty other surfers like in Manly.
Chad busting a little air
The man himself (the beast)
Chad rips a wave pretty good, he has some skills on that bit of foam.
Later that afternon I went out from the point where we were surfing for a bit of a fish while the rest of the crew went for another surf. The next thing you know a hammer head shark came right up to the rocks where I was fishing - I couldn’t beleve it. It was about 1.5m long and it would take a decent bite out of you. I tried to let the guys surfing know but they were about 50m away and couldn’t hear me. Luckily the shark just turned around once it got near to the rocks and headed back out in to the deeper water.
Me waiting for the next set to roll through with my 400mm in hand
We run into all sorts of wild life up there, as well as the shark, my friend just about stood on a snake and there was the local campground lizard hanging around.
I would love to spend some more time at some stage exploring the coast line around Australia, there is still so much so see.
Chad ripping another