New Zealand with Sean and John

I got back 2 days ago from my New Zealand trip. What a beautiful country! I spent 6 1/2 weeks in the South Island and a week in the North island. The South island has geographical features that were incredibly similar to Iceland and Norway, Washington and California wine country, US pacific coast, Hawaii, and even a bit of Montana and northern Nevada. The foliage is completely different though with the trees and brush having a more primitive feel to it. There's also nothing there trying to kill you (no bears, mountain lions, elk , moose, snakes, or near sighted hunters) except the roads.

Sean and John were very gracious and took the time to go out and shoot with me. They even brought me home for dinner, and after more than 7 weeks on the road having two excellent home cooked meals in the company of them and their families was a real treat. I am very appreciative to them for their hospitality. I look forward to the opportunity to reciprocate.

One bit of warning though. If you plan on going there you should be aware that there are very strict rules regarding the weight of your carry on bags. Both Air New Zealand and Qantas limit you to 2 items, both weighing less than 7 kilos each. I ended up flying Air Tahiti Nui because they allow 10 kilos per bag but force you to stop and layover in Tahiti.

When I got to the ticket counter in Auckland for my return flight, they weighed my carry ons. And as they weighed a combined 30 kilos I was told that I would need to buy a third carry on bag and split up the weight before I got to the security area, where another scale was waiting. At that second scale the security person gave me a serious hard time about having 3 carry ons, I told her that the ticket counter told me to get the third bag, and that all the bags were stuffed with film and fragile photo gear, this did not help. She continued to tell me that i couldn't fly but after about 10 minutes she made a few phone calls and decided to pass me off to the guys at the x-ray machine. Fortunately they were far easier going and just let me right through. At LAX I requested a hand search of my film and was given one without hesitation. It only took two of them 25 minutes to swab all 188 rolls of film, individually. (sigh)

Sounds like a great time! I look forward to seeing some results of this trip.

Was great meeting you Brian! This was the first time I've gone out shooting in a while so it was revitalizing. I'm now getting some normality back to my shooting and printing -phew.

I am so relieved you made it back safely with all that exposed film. I look forward to seeing some scans soon. Anyone else visitng NZ be sure to get in touch with John and I, it's always great fun doing these day shoots.

Travis, it'll take me about 3 weeks to process and contact print all the film. Neg scans will follow.

Sean, I tried PM'ing you to thank you but your PM's are off. It was fun getting out with you and John. After such a long time alone on the road it was also great to have someone to talk to. I hope I didn't ramble too much! You have a lovely family and home and it was a pleasure to meet them. Thank you. Next time you come to the states we'll have to arrange another shoot day.

I'd been thinking about what you might be up to in NZ Brian and will be looking forward to seeing some negative scans when you get a chance. 6 1/2 weeks, what a dream. What were the highlights?

Did you manage to get a hand inspection at any of the other airports?

Matthew Gorringe said:

I'd been thinking about what you might be up to in NZ Brian and will be looking forward to seeing some negative scans when you get a chance. 6 1/2 weeks, what a dream. What were the highlights?

Did you manage to get a hand inspection at any of the other airports?

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Hi Matt, the trip was 7 1/2 weeks, 6 1/2 south Island, 1 in the north Island which i think was a good ratio. The North Island is beautiful though, just more populated and not quite as spectacular, but it is also worth some serious time spent there. But the South Island is amazing.

I took a total of 6 planes, NYC to LA, LA to Papeete Tahiti, Papeete to Auckland, and back. I got hand searches of the film in NY (JFK), LA (LAX) with no problem. In Papeete even though I was the only person online and was traveling first class which usually gets you greater leniency and higher limits on baggage (thanks FF miles!) I nearly had to hold my breath for a hand search. They eventually relented and did a hand search, not just of the film, but of everything, even the already x-rayed stuff. They opened each lens, had me remove batteries from electronics, explain the purpose of each item and had me fill out a long written explanation of why I needed a hand search of film. It took over an hour. But I got it through. On the return the film was x-rayed in Auckland, given that I was way over the carry on weight and quantity limits I didn't want to push my luck so i didn't ask. Passing again through Papeete I was a "in transit" passeneger and did not have to go through security again as I never left a secured area. In LA they did the hand search but they swabbed all 188 rolls individually which was very time intensive.

So with 6 flights my film only got one x-ray. Not bad. But you have to take into account the 41 hours spent at 37,000 feet which carries a far higher dose of cosmic rays and radiation. It's at least equivalent to another x-ray or two.

Highlight wise, it was ALL a highlight. This is a truly amazing place. Milford Sound, Mt Cook, Lake TeAnau, Catlins coast, Wanaka, so many. The weather though was not cooperative. The skies were either completely clear and boring, also giving extremely contrasty light, totally overcast and super flat or filled with ugly clouds. I was hoping more for the beautiful clouds that I ordinarily see in Hawaii, but in 54 days never saw them. Still I think I got enough images to justify the costs and time. Motels ran on average US $105 taxes included, which is close to the US costs for Best Western type motels. Most of the motels had small kitchenettes so most of my meals were convenience foods bought at local supermarkets and heated in the room. Food costs were higher than in the US and fuel was far higher. A liter of diesel was between NZD$ 1.45 and 1.55.

If you plan on going to NZ, do a bunch of research and by all means contact our fellow APUGgers who live there. It is a special place.

"Hi Matt, the trip was 7 1/2 weeks, 6 1/2 south Island, 1 in the north Island which i think was a good ratio. The North Island is beautiful though, just more populated and not quite as spectacular, but it is also worth some serious time spent there. But the South Island is amazing."

On both my NZ photo trips I planned a 1/3 North Island, 2/3 South Island time ratio. But each time I started on the North and headed south...and ended up doing 50/50. Both Islands have their wonders...as well as Stewart Island in the far south (if one wants do do a little tramping with the camera). Good to hear that you had a great time in NZ, ER! Due to the distance (and $) one has to travel from the Northern Hemisphere, it makes sense to spend as much time as possible there (I had a 3 month and a 6 month trip -- before wife & kids...and I worked seasonally). But it doesn't matter how long one's trip is -- it is always too short!

Good luck in processing your film and with the results! On my 6 month trip I was on a bicycle with my 4x5 -- I had plenty of time on the bike to mentally process and print all my negs...and was fortunate that I had many that actually printed as well as I imagined...and many that unfortunately did not (largely due to damage from static, but some due to operator error and faulty vision). But even the the "bad" negs were well worth the experience behind them!

Vaughn

Vaughn, 6 months is the way to go, but a bicycle has got to be rough on those unsealed roads!

Sounds fantastic. So were you shooting all rollfilm, or did you shoot some 4x5" as well? If I remember correctly, you've mentioned that you usually shoot with a couple of Sinar F2's, Sinar Zoom backs, and a Fotoman when you're traveling by car. Out of curiosity, what do you bring with you on a trip like this?

Early Riser said:

Vaughn, 6 months is the way to go, but a bicycle has got to be rough on those unsealed roads!

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I hear they have paved the road over Haast Pass...pity, that was a heck of a ride down that wash board. I just went as fast as I could, kept all my weight on the pedals and as loose of a grip on the handlebars as I could get away with. I was surprised that that the shutter on the Caltar IIN 150/5.6 and the Pentax Digital Spot still worked after that shaking!

Only took one spill...leaving Lake Waikaremoana and after 140km of metal (gravel) road, I got into deeper gravel on a downhill curve and drifted into the rocks a grader must have pushed off to the side of the road. Over the handle bars I went, tucked 'n rolled on top of the rocks, and laid there awhile wondering if anything was broken. Nothing was (always wear a helmet!), a bit sore and a little repair work on the bike and I was on my way (only to find that the paved road started about 100 meters later)...Christmas morning 1987...my, that was a while ago!

Did you make it to Lake Waikaremoana (NI)? Beautiful place! I tramped (backpacked) around the lake, 5 days I think, and got some nice B&W 4x5's for the effort. Too many beautiful places! And good people, too.

Vaughn

Yes Sean needs to get out more and play. All work and no play make for a grumpy Sean LOL.

David A. Goldfarb said:

Sounds fantastic. So were you shooting all rollfilm, or did you shoot some 4x5" as well? If I remember correctly, you've mentioned that you usually shoot with a couple of Sinar F2's, Sinar Zoom backs, and a Fotoman when you're traveling by car. Out of curiosity, what do you bring with you on a trip like this?

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Hi David, Because of the carry on limitations this trip was with a Linhof MT3000, 2 Sinar Zoom backs (a I & a II) and about 8 lenses. No Fotoman and no readyloads, just 120 roll film and type 55 Polaroid, which was used also to possibly provide a larger squarer format if needed. I also brought 2 tripods as they had to be checked, so a Gitzo CF went into one suitcase and a Ries went into another. This way if one checked bag went awry I would still have a tripod. Also the Ries can get dunked in water and the Gitzo can't.

I brought 156 rolls and had my wife fedex me another 25. I also brought 5 boxes of type 55. I always carry 2 Sinar zooms because even though they have never failed me, they are complex devices and if they got dropped that could mean the end of the trip.

Also brought 14 filters, and backups for my most often used filters were carried in the checked baggage. I always carry a laser rangefinder, a spare pair of binoculars, a digi P&S for pix for my wife, Linhof multi viewer, gps, a Kestrel pocket weather meter, a zone vi spot meter and a pocket spot meter. A laptop computer also made the trip and the ability to log onto the internet and video chat (for free) with my wife made the distance feel smaller and kept the phone bill down to almost nothing.

Vaughn said:

I hear they have paved the road over Haast Pass...pity, that was a heck of a ride down that wash board. I just went as fast as I could, kept all my weight on the pedals and as loose of a grip on the handlebars as I could get away with. I was surprised that that the shutter on the Caltar IIN 150/5.6 and the Pentax Digital Spot still worked after that shaking!

Only took one spill...leaving Lake Waikaremoana and after 140km of metal (gravel) road, I got into deeper gravel on a downhill curve and drifted into the rocks a grader must have pushed off to the side of the road. Over the handle bars I went, tucked 'n rolled on top of the rocks, and laid there awhile wondering if anything was broken. Nothing was (always wear a helmet!), a bit sore and a little repair work on the bike and I was on my way (only to find that the paved road started about 100 meters later)...Christmas morning 1987...my, that was a while ago!

Did you make it to Lake Waikaremoana (NI)? Beautiful place! I tramped (backpacked) around the lake, 5 days I think, and got some nice B&W 4x5's for the effort. Too many beautiful places! And good people, too.

Vaughn

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Vaughn, you're lucky you didn't get seriously hurt. Even now some of the roads are pretty challenging and required a 4wd with some power behind it. I rented a 4wd camper van with a 2800cc diesel. On a few very steep roads I was concerned that I might not get up them and could in fact slide down in reverse. Given that most of those roads were also single lane, gravel, super twisty, narrow with sheer cliff drop offs and no guard rails took a little getting used to. I only came across one road that was marked "dangerous" and given the level of roads that were considered "safe" I decided that it was a road that I could afford to go around. There does seem to be an active effort to seal, pave, more roads. The pass between Queensland and Wanaka had been fairly recently paved.

I didn't make it to Lake Waikaremoana as I was mainly on the south island. I did get to Tongariro and stayed at the Chateau there. A nice place but was shocked that the internet there cost 93 cents a minute, or $ 55.80 an hour!( no APUGging for me there!)

Tongariro National Park was great -- spent 6 days there in the campground. I was having a hard time pedaling the bike -- might have been that fall, it might have been the 70 miles I did that Christmas day, but my knee was a wreak. I could hike fine, though and made it to the top of Nagohoe (sp?) one day and part way up Ruapahoe (more bad sp) on another. Spent New Years Day there also. It was a great place to wander around.

Amazing to consider that when I was there last, there was no internet (and no Lord of the Ring hype either!)

Looking forward to seeing some images! I did not have a roll back for my 4x5 back then -- it would have been a fun tool to have had along

Hi Brian - very glad to see that you and the film bag made it back to home safely.

It was a pleasure to meet someone who clearly enjoys NZ so much, made such good use of their time here and who has such a high level of comitment and focus on their photography. Actually I believe Brian went to every place shown here, and found places that hadn't even been discovered yet. The dept of lands and survey are hoping to speak to you btw .

Best, John McC.

John McCallum said:

Hi Brian - very glad to see that you and the film bag made it back to home safely.

It was a pleasure to meet someone who clearly enjoys NZ so much, made such good use of their time here and who has such a high level of comitment and focus on their photography. Actually I believe Brian went to every place shown here, and found places that hadn't even been discovered yet. The dept of lands and survey are hoping to speak to you btw .

Best, John McC.

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John, I love that commercial. I showed it to my wife, she loved it too. Great place New Zealand, it's a pity all the drivers don't know which side of the road to drive on. I'm still activating my windshield wipers every time I make a turn....

Thanks for your, and Sean's gracious hospitality. Kiwis are a great bunch even if they are flightless and have long noses with nostrils on the end. I have only two words for the dept of lands...... guard rails.

I kind of still feel like I'm in NZ though as I just saw the price of diesel here in NY, $4.60 a gallon. Have you processed that resin filter versus glass filter test yet? Or the "see no evil,......."

Regards to Simone and the girls.

P.S. 54 rolls processed so far, another 108 to go.....

Eric Rose said:

Yes Sean needs to get out more and play. All work and no play make for a grumpy Sean LOL.

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Eric, There's some truth to that. APUG takes far more time and effort from Sean than many of us here realize. This is a seriously time consuming job for him and that he has made this place into such a valuable asset to photographers as well as an enjoyable place to be is a testament to his commitment and patience. Far too many benefit from this place and yet still choose to not become a subscriber. At the humble subscription rates that APUG asks, it's a bargain.

Thanks for the info, Brian. I guess that's about as much stuff as I carry on that kind of trip, with a few substitutions--just one tripod, and Grafmatics more than rollfilm backs, though I sometimes bring one, and I usually limit myself to 5-6 lenses. Since I've got the Tech V, I can get away without a tripod for a day or two by shooting with the rangefinder (and have done so once when my tripod was delayed to Maui).

John -- that's a great commercial! I nearly choked on my DC (that's diet coke to the uninitiated) -- great kiwi humour. I spent a month in the South Island a couple of years ago and would love to go back for a longer period. I'm also looking forward to seeing your images Brian, once you get through all the developing and printing and so on...

With some idea now of how you process your film Brian, I don't expect you'll have time to answer this. But I need to confess something. Actually we do drive on the right hand side. But you know how we need a challenge. So every time we see a tourist coming ....
As for being flightless and long nosed. Well that makes it all the easier to look down our noses (or rather Up our noses - given our height) at the tourists! The flightless thing is a problem. Evolution hasn't been kind. That's why we don't have cliff barriers on certain roads. It's to speed up the evolutionary process. Every now and then you'll hear someone saying to his neighbour "seen Barry? Oh No he didn't take the mountain road to Wanaka did he? I get the Amstrad 64".
The smart visitors are clever and seem to survive.
But the flightless thing does bother us. We pretend a lot. Often with a bit of elastic cord around the ankles and a big cliff.

Incidentally for anyone else wishing to travel to NZ we have quite a strict dress code. The following informative video is played on all inflight information channels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Lx2ihpGbc

Filters. Yes. Brian if I didn't know the lighting and development conditions were the same, I wouldn't have believed it. Out they go. 'Hear n e see n e speak n e' should be processed shortly. I have your address .

Our best wishes to Jayni. We do hope to meet her next time. (Or maybe in NY!)

John.

There was a rumour a few years ago about a moose having been spotted in the South Island.

John McCallum said:

With some idea now of how you process your film Brian, I don't expect you'll have time to answer this. But I need to confess something. Actually we do drive on the right hand side. But you know how we need a challenge. So every time we see a tourist coming ....
As for being flightless and long nosed. Well that makes it all the easier to look down our noses (or rather Up our noses - given our height) at the tourists! The flightless thing is a problem. Evolution hasn't been kind. That's why we don't have cliff barriers on certain roads. It's to speed up the evolutionary process. Every now and then you'll hear someone saying to his neighbour "seen Barry? Oh No he didn't take the mountain road to Wanaka did he? I get the Amstrad 64".
The smart visitors are clever and seem to survive.
But the flightless thing does bother us. We pretend a lot. With a bit of elastic cord around the ankles and a big cliff.

Incidentally for anyone else wishing to travel to NZ we have quite a strick dress code. The following informative video is played on all inflight information channels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Lx2ihpGbc

Filters. Yes. Brian if I didn't know the lighting and development conditions were the same, I wouldn't have believed it. Out they go. 'Hear n e see n e speak n e' should be processed shortly. I have your address .

Our best wishes to Jayni. We do hope to meet her next time. (Or maybe in NY!)

John.

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Hi John, no processing today, I have some sort of bug, not pleasant. Another 8 full days of film processing, and then 3 days of contact prints and I'll know what I got from NZ. Things are looking interesting though.

I really like the video, didn't see many people swimming though. Kiwis seem to wear short pants even in the coldest weather. A hardy bunch with a great sense of humor.

Was the glass versus resin filter test that big a difference? I didn't think it would be that big with a 150mm lens, it's extremely apparent though on longer lenses.

Jayni and I would love to host you and the girls if you get to the US.

Oh sorry to hear about the bug. Add me to the list of those who are very interested to see what you have from NZ.

Yes the diff between resin and glass in this case is obvious enough to see even with an 8 x loupe on the neg only. Need it be said, I will be testing further.

John.