A Trip Through Middle Earth, New Zealand

In January 2021, I travelled to Christchurch to visit friends. My idea was to travel up the East Coast then take a trip through middle earth, Christchurch to Greymouth over Arthurs Pass. Then home via the West Coast.

Canterbury is usually hot and dry and this year was no exception. The first morning I woke up to the most incredible sky. The clouds hung low in the hot still air but moved quickly across the sky, I made a post about it North Westerly Cloud Formation

North West Cloud Pattern very Lord of the Rings
North West Change

Before setting off to the West Coast I had a small culvert to fix up. The culvert needed a footing put in but I didn’t video that part of the build. I time lapsed the the rest of the build and decide to add it to the video I made.

This first video covers the stone culvert build and then the journey over Arthurs Pass to Greymouth then onto Punakaiki. I wanted to capture the blowholes in action and high tide was just on dusk. It was dark by the time I got finished up with the blowholes and the camping ground was closed. I drove North until a large tree appeared on the skyline, this was where I parked up for a few hours.

Twisted tree at Punakaiki could be from middle earth.
Twisted Tree

The next morning was foggy but as I drove back toward Greymouth the fog started lifting and I was treated to a stunning West Coast day.

I recently installed GoPro mounts on the side windows of the van as well as the mount on the dash. It worked a treat and I was able to capture some absolutely breathtaking landscapes as I drove.

So grab a coffee, sit back and enjoy the trip through middle earth 🙂

I post a lot of my photos on Flickr so shoot over there and check them out 🙂

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