The photos in this post’s gallery were taken on boat trips around D’Urville Island, Marlborough Sounds, located on the northern tip of the South Island, New Zealand. Robin and I have based our boat in Nelson, Havelock and Picton.
The island is about 150 square kilometres / 58 square miles in area and 35 kilometres / 22 miles long, a substantial but manageable area for a trips of a week or more. Cruises of 2 – 3 weeks allow time for good exploration of the island’s shores. While D’Urville is easily accessible from safe harbours in Nelson and Marlborough Sounds, it has a remote undeveloped feel is because it pokes well out into Cook Strait making it periodically subject to very rough sea conditions. Plus approaching the island from the Marlborough Sounds, vessels have to pass through either Stevens Island Passage or French Pass to access D’Urville’s west side with the vast majority of safe anchorages. The passes are quite passable with care but transiting should be timed around slack tide due to fast dangerous currents at other times.
There are lots of great seascape scenes around D’Urville as it has a wild, rugged, remote feel but like all landscapes, planning and patience can turn average conditions into good lighting and interesting photos. The island is aligned NE to SW and when possible, we try to transit the east coast during the morning with the sun rising on the landscape and the west coast in the afternoon with the sun setting.
Our trips around D’Urville are typically 2 – 3 weeks that are often dominated by several sunny high pressure systems punctuated with low pressure frontal passages making the lighting changeable and interesting. While anchoring we try to pick areas with interesting shore detail so I can take lots of time watching for the right moments to photograph.
The photos were taken with two full frame digital cameras; one with a wide to normal angle 24 – 70 mm lens and the other with a mild telephoto 70 – 200 mm lens. To prevent sensor spots caused by dust I do not switch lenses and do not use a single body with a wide to telephoto focal length range because the optical quality is not as good.
Hope you enjoy the pics!
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Outstanding photographs as always. Have never been to this area myself so thanks for sharing your experience with us.
this picture of the wooded area with reflection just grabbed me right away. I kept going back to it. Always enjoy “traveling” through your photography.
A wonder-filled gallery of shots. I particularly like the island with the apparently rectangular hole. Two shots together appear to be front and back of the rectangular passage. Thanks for sharing.
Rugged shores and still waters, running deep! I love the sharp focus, the changing colors, and that black and grey “water only” picture. Very calming and soothing. A pleasure, as always!