Thermal Pools - Rotorua, New Zealand

Thermal Pools - Rotorua, New Zealand

A few months ago we were in New Zealand for a short holiday. We spent most of our time in Auckland but did drive up to Rotorua to see the thermal pools, the main tourist attraction of the area. It was a 3 hour drive from Auckland and gave us an opportunity to see some of the stunning countryside which NewZealand is famous for.

More photographs inside.

Thermal Pools - Rotorua, New Zealand

A number of geysers, mud pools and hot springs can be found within a few kilometers of town. We visited the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland and completed a one and a half hour walk which led us through all the thermal pools in the park. From some of the higher vantage points we were able to see the varying colours of some of the pools.

Lady Knox Geyser - Rotorua, New Zealand

The Lady Knox Geyser is the best known of the geysers in the area. Everyday at around 10.15AM the Lady Knox Geyser erupts with the assistance of a local guide. The geyser consists of two water chambers. The temperature of the upper water chamber is cooler than that of the lower chamber. This is due to the fact that the lower water chamber is heated by the volcanic activity while the upper chamber cools down due to the larger opening to the outside.

 

Lady Knox Geyser - Rotorua, New Zealand

The eruption is caused when a piece of soap is thrown into the upper chamber and it mixes with the hotter water of the lower chamber (because of the lowered surface tension). The eruption produces a jet of water that can reach 20 meters in height and can last for an hour if the weather conditions are favourable.

Thermal Pools - Rotorua, New Zealand

The combination of the mineral precipitation, volcanic activity and micro-organisms create the varying colours that can be seen in the pools around the thermal park. The Champagne Pool is especially colourful.

All the photographs on this post were taken with the Canon 7D and the 24-105mm camera. I didn't use a tripod.

Forster - New South Wales, Australia

Main Beach - Forster, Australia

The 26th of January is Australia Day, one of a handful of public holidays over here in Australia. Since it fell on a Thursday this year, we took Friday off and headed up to Forster for the long weekend.  We stayed at one of our friends apartments which is just a block away form Main Beach.

More photographs inside.

Forster - Tuncurry Bridge across Wallis Lake - Forster, Australia

Forster and its twin town Tuncurry, lie on a thin strip of land between Wallis lake and the Pacific Ocean. Forster and Tuncurry are home to a population of around 18,500 people, more than half of who are aged over 55 years. Forster is located in the great lakes area which is roughly 300 km north of Sydney, an easy 3 hour drive.

The Marina - Forster, Australia

The Forster marina is the first part of town that you see on the right hand side of the bridge when you drive in from Tuncurry. The breakwater is open to the public and a paved walkway provides easy access from the public car park. Dolphins can be seen around the breakwater on a regular basis.

The Pelicans - Forster, Australia

The Marina is also known for the flock of relatively large Pelicans that are often seen there. Facilities are provided for fishermen to clean their catch at the Marina and the birds gather around the cleaning tables hoping to feed on the scraps. They are quite used to people and gather by the table whenever someone is cleaning their fish.

Ocean Baths - Forster, Australia

As with most coastal towns in Australia, Forster also has Ocean Baths. The baths are located at the southern end of main Beach and are open to the public. The baths can be tricky to photograph as the rising sun will be directly in the background in most compositions. The best times to photograph the pools would be late evening or early morning before the sun rises. A Tripod is essential.

Ocean Baths - Forster, Australia

I made several early morning starts and managed to shoot the pool in varying light conditions. These two photographs are the ones I liked best of the lot. I tried using a graduated ND filter to compress the dynamic range of the photographs but it was tricky due to the compositions that I chose.

Tuncurry across Wallis Lake - Forster, Australia

All the images on this post were taken with the Canon 7D and the 24-105mm lens. A graduated ND filter was used for some of the photographs and a tripod came in handy on many occasions.

Western Monasteries - Anuradhapura

In the quieter parts of the sacred city of Anuradhapura lie the Western Monasteries or the Tapovana Monastery. The Monastery was inhabited by meditating forest dwelling monks who came into prominence in the seventh century. More info and images inside.

The main component of the hermitages of these monks was the padhanagaras or the meditation houses, which were beautifully built of well proportioned and meticulously-dressed plain stone. A curious feature of these monasteries is the ornamented urinal stones. These are the only elaborately decorated features found in the Monastery which is otherwise characteristically devoid of ornamentation except of the simplest kind.

Architecturally the habitations of these monks of the tapovana sect also called Pamsukulin are generic, and are duplicated in many other monasteries of the fraternity as at Ritigala and Arankele. However according to scholars the monasteries at Anuradhapura represent the padhanagara pirivena in its most developed form.
Source - http://www.angelfire.com/in4/anuradhapura/tapovana.htm

All the images shown above were shot with a Canon 400D with an EF 50mm f1.8 lens. The image of the cave comprises 6 images stitched together using Hugin.

North Narrabeen Tidal Pool

This is another shot from the same evening.

North Narrabeen Tidal Pool

This shot of the tidal pool at narrabeen beach was taken about twenty minutes after sunset.