NZPhotographer Issue 18, April 2019

F2.8, 20s, ISO10000
Punakaiki 2.0
by Brendon Gilchrist
In Issue 4, I touched on the small west coast town of
Punakaiki, or what I called Jurassic Park. Well, I’ve been
back! It is rare for me to be on the West Coast aka the
Wet Coast but thankfully, I got lucky with the weather
with only a little bit of rain.
Punakaiki is surrounded by limestone landscapes of
many different forms including the mysterious and
popular pancakes rocks, so perfectly stacked upon
each other that no one knows how/why they formed
exactly like that. These pancake rocks and the blowholes
are the main attraction of Punakaiki and amazingly are
still free to walk around and enjoy.
By day this place is always busy, usually busier at high tide
just in case the swells are coming from the right direction
to create an updraft of water and air for the blowholes
to activate. But at night there are very few people
around, maybe 1 or 2.
I decided to visit the platform that overlooks the
pancake rocks one night to capture the milky way over
the mountains. It was a good night to continue playing
with my new Nikkor 14–24 2.8g. I have been missing out
on that extra 14mm of focal length for a long time now
and am happy to be able to shoot ultra wide angled
shots.
On the one rainy morning I got when I visited, I walked
beside the river on the beautiful and well maintained
Pororari River Track with the towering limestone cliffs
that rise up to 100 metres above the water. I don’t know
about you but I find walking in the rain so refreshing, the
smell of fresh rainwater pattering on the tree leaves,
slowly dripping down to the forest floor, it’s refreshing to
be in that moment when nothing else matters but that
sense of being in nature and enjoying what you are
about to do – Capture some moody landscapes!
6 NZPhotographer