toddling in twizel

The last days have been getting up before dawn and driving up towards the face of Mount Cook to shoot the early light on the snow topped peaks and then spending the day driving from one amazing view to another then staying out late to shoot the setting sun on the glaciated waters. This equals days that start at 4 am. and finish around 10:30pm Those of you who know me are chuckling right now at the idea of me being coherent in any way at 4 am. (not exactly known as a morning person) The whole routine makes for a sleepy Bobbi way to early at night, and with the days lasting longer here it is really strange to be ready for PJ's when the sun is still out.

I have to say, that there are some pretty funny things in this country. Like, I bet you never saw this on the local Sub Way menu:




And even though every one warned me that there are quite possibly more sheep than humans in this country, I NEVER expected to meet one named Shrek...who grows such thick wool that they can't keep up with keeping him trimmed.. There are pictures of him looking like a giant stuffed animal, but I'm here to tell you that a big woolly animal that gets wet smells way way worse than an old wool sweater!




And then there are things like this, a super old Ford that we saw stuffed inside a wooden shack at the back of a little garden/shop we stopped at to have yummy hot black currant juice...

and the really really big dog that helped serve us dinner last week...who wears a sign that says not to feed him.

Of course there is a whole lot of amazing too....The lakes near Mount Cook are fed by glacier water and snow melt so they are the perfect color of cyan..not blue, not sort of green.. cyan.. The blogger version of this image won't show it well, but this is a KRAZY color for water.


Oh, and just in case you can't tell how big the glacier blobs in this picture are, that tiny yellow thing is a raft big enough to hold twenty people in it.


We got to take a helicopter to the second highest peak next to Mount Cook so that we could shoot from the snow patch we landed on... seriously one of the greatest things I've done in a long time.. the space and views are just glorious... that really is the only word I can think of to describe it.

The Lupine are all blooming, so the landscape smells and looks amazing. We are fighting with the wind to try and get some good wide shots for clients to use, but even just trying is great work. To be honest, I may never want to see another Lupine again after this trip!




The next two days are wrap up days and travel back up the coast to Christchurch. I'm sorry to be leaving, but really glad to be getting back home to Mark and the puppies! As soon as I can, I'll post the real set of pictures for you all to see if you'd like .
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Holiday! I watched Women's Net ball (which is a really strange form of basketball with no backboard and girls that don't dribble the ball.) but even without pumpkin pie it was easy to spend time thinking of our friends and families and missing them a BUNCH!

best,

bh