New Zealand

Why Visit New Zealand ? - The other side of the world...

New Zealand is where landscape photography goes to feel inadequate. The South Island alone — with Milford Sound's sheer fiord walls, the turquoise glacial melt of Lake Pukaki below Mount Cook, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing's volcanic moonscape, and the Waitomo glowworm caves — contains more extraordinary natural subjects per kilometre than anywhere I've been. The North Island adds the geothermal weirdness of Rotorua, the golden beaches of Abel Tasman, and the rolling green hills of the Waikato that look, absurdly, exactly like the Shire. Because they are.

● Milford Sound and Fiordland — rain is common here and actually improves the photographs: waterfalls multiply on the vertical cliff walls after precipitation, and the low cloud that hangs between the fiord walls creates a scale and drama that clear days sometimes lack. Photograph from the water — the boat perspective is essential.

● Lake Pukaki and the Aoraki/Mount Cook corridor — the road along the western shore of Lake Pukaki, with the impossibly blue-green glacial water and Mount Cook on the horizon, produces landscape photographs that look like paintings. Come at dawn or sunset when the mountain catches colour.

● Abel Tasman National Park — accessible only on foot or by water taxi, the park's golden-sand beaches and bright blue sea make for some of the most joyful coastal photography in the southern hemisphere. The sea kayaking perspective at water level is something no drone can replicate.

● Rotorua's geothermal fields — boiling mud pools, erupting geysers, and the Champagne Pool's mineral-stained terraces at Wai-O-Tapu give New Zealand a surreal, otherworldly dimension that most visitors don't associate with the country.