PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE

My Life Between Work and Pleasure or Between the Ground and the Skies

Week 174 of the photographic documentary of my daily life

A friend just texted me asking if we were working as well here in New Zealand as she only gets to see hiking pictures from us on social media. We do work as well, for sure but I don’t share much of that online.

The reason why we took this job down under was because we wanted to explore the country. And that is what we do in every single free minute. We love the great outdoors and this is where you will find us most of the time.

I was writing in last week's photo-a-day challenge of our first overnight hiking trip to the Matukituki River. On our second morning in the valley, we woke to blue skies and sunshine and enjoyed our coffee (David), tea (me) and porridge while overlooking the crystal clear river down below.

It had been an amazing start to our hiking adventures and I know it will be hard to beat this camping location. But life isn’t always about bigger and better, sometimes enjoying the moment is enough. Disregarding what was before or will be after.

On Friday, we were back to work and I didn’t take any other pictures than those while I was flying through the sky as a photographer filming a tandem passenger's first skydive.

A thin layer of clouds was hovering above the Southern Alps but we were in the open able to see the ground and where we should land. Perfect conditions I’d say as a few clouds always make the sky look more interesting.

On Saturday, we decided to do what normal people also do on weekends. When we came back from work, we sat down outside and enjoyed a lovely braai (Afrikaans for BBQ).

While we aren’t allowed to make fire here with wood, we found some charcoal as we don’t enjoy using a gas grill. Then we might as well make the meat in the pan.

And we didn’t just find any charcoal in the store. We found Namibian charcoal, can you believe it? Of course, we did buy that package knowing those coals would be good ones.

And they were. So was our meat.

It felt like home.

And for those of you who are following my photo-a-day series, you will have learned last week about that little ‘chute’ called drogue that a tandem pair has to be slowed down in freefall to a ‘normal’ speed of 200kph.

Once we pull the handle to open the main parachute, that little white thing opens the container and then collapses. Its job is done as you can see it above the parachute in the photo below. The main parachute is now in the process of inflating.

I can’t show you the picture of it completely open as I, the camera flyer in this case, continue falling at 200kph while the tandem pair now quickly reduces speed under the canopy seemingly going up.

I will open my parachute about 5 seconds after the photo below.

And if this is all too crazy for you, just enjoy the view. I love this picture. With the clouds on different levels, Lake Wanaka in the background and even some snow on the Southern Alps still visible.

Pretty isn’t it?

And yes, I did place myself in that spot on purpose to have this exact shot in the frame. Still doing all that while zooming toward Earth. Because that is what I get paid for.

Since we finished work rather early, we stopped on the way home at the Clutha River so that David could throw a couple of casts. We are still trying to find the best fishing spot for him to bring home some food and while there were no fish around, this time was certainly not wasted.

Look at the color of the river and those beautiful trees and lupine flowers surrounding it. I was wandering around the shores of the river while David was casting his rod.

The Clutha River is New Zealand’s second longest river and the longest one on the South Island and despite its size and length, it still carries this incredible color. Isn’t it fascinating?

Talking about the river, this picture I took on Monday as we were ascending in the plane. I love how this river winds its way down from Lake Wanaka.

And there was our next weekend already. Remember, Tuesday is our Friday and right after work we were off to the mountains again. But since we finished work rather late we did not make it to the spot I planned on camping. Sometimes things do not go according to plan but this doesn’t matter as we still did the best of our trip.

And look below. The Steward Falls might direct you to Utah in the States, but these waterfalls are a lot more remote and hard to get to. We were the only hikers reaching the waterfall and then had to cross the river to continue our hike.

We had two options. Balance across the fallen log or take the shoes off and walk through the river. I opted for number one and David chose number two. We both made it across but one of us struggled a bit more.

I’ll write about that in a separate article.

And since we did not make it up the mountain and ended up camping down in the valley, we needed Plan B and decided on Wednesday to keep driving to hit the West Coast.

The skies were overcast as we spotted the Tasman Sea. This marginal sea located between Australia and New Zealand is about 2000 kilometers wide and reaches incredible depths of almost 6000 meters (20,000 feet). This body of water is part of the South Pacific Ocean and was incredibly calm that day.

We walked along some well-maintained and very informative boardwalks through the thick coastal forest and along the beach. It was lovely with few tourists around.

This has been my weekly photo essay. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett started this photography challenge in 2020 and many have participated ever since.

Dennett / Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny / Jillian / Shell / Ivy / Lisa / Lynne / Julia

These are the previous weekly photo essays:

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