Day 1: Monday

The alarm sounded. Much like the other morning; it felt too early. Enough time for a cup of tea, pack the last of the things into the bag & made my way to the meeting point for the 6:30am start.

First stop: breakfast. Introductions around the table of 8 students; revealed a group of people from 2 countries (3 if you include our driver), 3 Australian states & a myriad of backgrounds. But let's be honest, I think I live in the prettiest.

Down to the lake for a quick set up & capture of the first light trying to bust through the clouds high above the snow dusted peaks. It never did make it through; but this offered us an opportunity to set up cameras at the basics for the week.
*manual settings only - focus & lighting
*native ISO (100 for me)
*f-stop 11 (up to 16 for closer objects)
*auto white balance
*histogram access (unfortunately I can only do this in postview, not live view)

A few more photos before heading out of town to our next location: St. Bathans.

The scenery from the window of the bus is majestic. It's captivating & mesmerising. The mountains move away, but continue to inundate the horizon in every direction. Dusted with snow, and threatened by clouds moving quickly across the sky.
We followed the river to St Bathans; a pub, a coffeeplace & land for sale. We turned down to the waters edge.

A funny spot. With the slightest of breeze the water ripples & the opportunity for THAT photo of reflection disappears. A few moments of sunshine provided opportunities of blue water if you had climbed high enough to use the waters depth in your favour. A few trees still hold on to the last days of autumn.

Lunch in Palmerston. Not much here, appears to be a junction for different directions around this part of the island.

Arrived in Dunedin. Bigger than I had imagined - not that I'd given it much thought mind. Everyone got out at the camera store. Clutter if you ask me. It took 2 laps to pick them up again. Pulling up to the hotel we were in for a treat. Directly in front of us is the boardwalk & beach. Unobstructed views north for me.

Unloaded the camera...& had this feeling of "I really should". Regret is horrible, especially when it was easily rectified. So I quickly packed my bag, and set out to find the camera shop. If there is a time to try/learn about graduated filters...this is it.

Got back to the beach to catch last light & many waves. I opted for bare feet. Cold yes. But risk of falling very low (unlike a few in gumboots). Gumboots on the beach? Seriously...nutters.

The filter was brilliant. I've 2 others in the box yet to play with, but no regrets. No regrets either for stopping to get "just one last photo" ...wet to my waist on that one. Oh well, it's only water (12.9C water to be exact).

Walked the 300m back to the hotel, a shower & dinner. The whole menu before us, but it all seemed quite large & stodgy- so I settled on the cheese & port plate as my main. No regrets either.

Unloaded & uploaded today's photos before bed. It's 1am, the alarm is set for 6am...but I left the electric blanket on too hot & it's a little too warm for sleep. Oops.