Back home – New Zealand Wanderings are over

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Yesterday the plane touched down in Melbourne bringing me back home and now my New Zealand Wanderings are over. It was an incredible journey and now I’m left with just memories, plus a few thousand photos.

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Back home – New Zealand Wanderings are over

Being back home after a trip overseas is always a bit of a let down. It is nice to be home, back in my own bed, but I’m not on holidays anymore. Now the normal stuff of day to day life has to resume. Catch up with the washing and unpack. So mundane really.

It was nice to get a full nights sleep in my own bed. It has to be said that I absolutely crashed. I did wake up at around 4am, I am apparently still on New Zealand time. It is probably fair to say that I will get over that soon.

Returning gear

Part of the unpacking process is also getting all the gear I borrowed ready to be picked up and returned.

The Fujifilm X-T3, along with the three lens is going back tomorrow. I loved travelling with that. It was also really interesting.

The Peak Design Travel Backpack and the 3 Legged Thing, Billy, tripod is going back this week as well. I loved the tripod and at this stage I think I will be buying one of my own. It will make a great addition to my kit. I think it will be good for the city. Such a lightweight tripod.

The Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13 has been put back into the box ready to go back. Just need them to respond to my email to organise its return. Again, another great piece of gear when you are travelling. I was able to work on many images which wouldn’t have been possible if I had just taken my laptop. Though, let’s face it, my laptop was never an option. It is too big and heavy.

Next is the Samyang fisheye lenses and the Benro Tripod. I believe I have them for a bit longer. I really didn’t get a chance to use the fisheye lenses much. We had hoped to get some astro done there, but the weather was shocking. I also had trouble working out how to use them on the Fujifilm camera for a while. The tripod was used quite a bit.

Today’s post

I just thought today I would let you know I was home. Also, let you know that I will be doing future posts on my trip as well. There are so many photos that I have taken and not touched, so I am looking forward to working on them.

Reviewing the gear is also planned. I know quite a few of you really want to know how I felt about the gear that I used. While I was away I also made a list of potential subjects for posts as well that are all around travelling. I will have to start working on them for you as well.

So plenty to do now that I am home.

Being home

One thing the trip really did do is make me keen to get out and take photos again. While seeing what was in New Zealand I kept thinking about places I want to go here.

For you today, I thought I would just do a gallery of some of my favourite images from the past couple of weeks.

Thank you to everyone who followed along with me. I really enjoyed hearing from you as well.

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26 Comments

  1. You did lots in a short time Leanne, I really enjoyed your photos, especially as you were a few days ahead of me in most places. Yes, the tourist thing is very difficult for NZ, particularly the South Island. Without the ‘hordes’ many of those small places would just about not exist anymore, such as Arrowtown but they certainly bring challenges with them.

    1. Thank you Chris, it is a shame we couldn’t have caught up somewhere. I have nothing against tourists, not really, I think people should be allowed to visit other parts of the world, but it has to be done respectfully. Remember you aren’t the only people there trying to see something, you know that sort of thing. We have so many tourists here in Melbourne too. It is the behaviour of some that I don’t like. The lack of respect. Though I really don’t think I’m a traveller.

    1. Thank you Julie, if I’m honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of Arrowtown. Too many people. It was packed and it was hard to really see the town. Though I loved the river area, it was special down there.

  2. Welcome back Leanne! Can’t wait to see how you develop your images. I smile at your comment about the mundane… that is what we try to avoid with our life afloat, but it sneaks in at times. You just have to relive your adventures as you work on your images.

    1. Thank you Chris, it is kinda nice being back. Yeah, will see how I go with the images. Yeah mundane can be boring, I will have to see if I can shake things up a bit.

  3. Have loved following you around NZ – we did most of this area last year. Love the photo of “that” tree – it was worth it, despite having to deal with fellow photographers. Arrowtown is a favourite little place, I remember seeing it looking like this 40 plus years ago when we first went to NZ. Rest up – looking forward to seeing more NZ images as you work through your collection.

    1. That is great Rosalyn, we did do most of the popular places. Good to see, some I wouldn’t go back to. Yes, I was really happy with the photos I got of that tree in the end.Yes, worth it despite some of the horrible behaviours of the other photographers. I don’t think I would go back there though. I was looking forward to Arrowtown, but it really seems to have become a tourist trap now. Sadly. I loved it along the river. Thank you Rosalyn, now have around 4000 photos to work through, see which ones I will work on.

  4. What a trip Leanne ! Love your *moody* Mountain making the best of the weather conditions photographs . Such a wealth of photographic wonderment in NZ .
    Great to see you had a couple of opportunities to catch THAT little tree . I would say it’s had more than its fair share of 15 minutes of fame Lol
    Look forward to more when you’re done and dusted with those post trip chores 😉

    1. That’s for sure Poppytump. It was fantastic. I loved the mountains so much, they are a really special treat for me. We really don’t have them here in Australia.
      New Zealand has so much, hard to do it justice in such a short time. Oh yes, that tree really has. It is a wonderful tree, but don’t think I would ever bother photographing it again.
      Thank you so much, I can’t wait to get started on some of the images.

    1. Thank you Lois. I’ve been sleeping so much better since being home, so good. Oh yes, the mundane, the special time is over. Though I’m not suffering from it as much as I did when I went to the US in 2015.

  5. Wow it looks like you have an amazing selection of fantastic captures … I enjoyed reading your posts and seeing New Zealand through your eyes … I can’t wait to hopefully go again next year …
    kind regards
    Liz Combes

    1. Thank you Liz, it is hard not to get good images there I think. Yeah, I would love to go back one day, it is so beautiful there. I would do things a little differently though.

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