Over the weekend 17-19th of April, Canterbury Westland region hosted 27 photographers from around the country, for a marvellous weekend on the West Coast. Our aim to support our regional members on the Coast, as well as utilizing the stunning landscape as the basis for some great photos.
With people coming from afar as Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland, we met up in Greymouth on the Friday night, hosted by Stuart and Lydia Nimmo at their gallery for drinks and pizza. The space they have created is outstanding and is a real showcase of their business on the Coast. Thank you for having us Stuart and Lydia. After we settled in at our cabins in Punakaiki motor camp, it was apparent that the West Coast rain was indeed as heavy as a legend has it. It absolutely bucketed down! Subsequently the best plans to go cave rafting in Charleston the next day were unfortunately shelved. However, the showers were only intermittent in the end, and we managed to get to the Pancake Rocks for some truly stunning high tide, blowhole action.
As a wet weather back up early afternoon, Jase Blair also managed to gain access to Gloria’s, a renovated church that is now an art piece in its own right. A number of folks had quite interesting time dressing up with Sam’s kit! After which, we again managed to evade the worst of the weather and went to Motukiekie. At low tide, the rock formations, rocky outposts, and colourful starfish are very well known on the Coast.
Without much time to dawdle, we headed into Greymouth for a tasty Indian buffet, before Rachel Roberts hosted us at her beautiful home in Taramakau. Rachael is fairly new to NZIPP but is doing some amazing work in the Astro space and recently shared some of her highly crafted images from both the Coast, and from a recent visit to Iceland. The weather wasn’t quite conducive enough for an Astro shoot, so after a few drinks we headed back to camp at Punakaiki. Interestingly however, a fleeting break in the weather did see an incredible lightning storm out to sea, and the glow of an aurora to the south at the Pancake Rocks!
The next day, we split into two groups – one going with Lydia Nimmo and Jules Anderson to photograph models on a beach north of camp. The other group went with Jase Blair to 10 Mile Gorge to an old mining spot. After which, everybody headed back home, having enjoyed a really magic weekend of conviviality, variety and creativity.
Canterbury Westland was thrilled to have had the support of our Coast members in making this happen. Equally wish to thank local members who travelled over, and of course other regional attendees from further afield who committed to this trip in unsettling times. There were a lot of moving parts, and a large group to make all fit together. But it worked!!
There are no promises that we will make this an annual event, though the idea of splitting a weekend away between Canterbury-Westland with Otago-Southland, does indeed hold some appeal. Watch this space!!
Tony Stewart
NZIPP Canterbury/Westland Regional Committee Coordinator
*Image gallery from the trip below:
