In 2015, I spent three weeks in New Zealand photographing the beautiful fauna and flora of my native country. Here are just some of the images I took from bees collecting honey from deep inside the Pohutukawa flowers in Taranaki, to my favourite birds – the peeping Oyster Catchers – appearing to comically stare at their own reflections in the sand in Raumati, just north of Wellington. Hope you enjoy! SaveSave
This is Louis the Tui. He followed me all over my parents’ property in rural Taranaki (Naki), New Zealand last Xmas, singing, grunting, wheezing, coughing and popping like a mechanical toy (Tui’s have a very active and noisy vocal range!). At one stage he even landed on the grass near to where I was sitting which is the first time I’ve ever seen a Tui on the ground. My parents were convinced that Louis was threatened by my Nikon camera and large zoom lens possibly thinking it was another Tui invading his space. I like to think he was in love with me and[…]
When I was young, around six or seven, my parents rented a bach every Christmas on a remote island in the Coromandel, on the east coast of New Zealand. The half-moon shaped island, which had a postage stamp-sized sandy white beach, was called Motupohukuo Island or Turkey island in English. We loved that Island as though it were our own. Our bach had no electricity, no running water, no mod cons and the toilets were scary long drop loos, the tall wooden kind, set far in the bush. We bathed in the sea, fished for snapper off the reef and ate raw[…]