Oh what a variety of gorgeous sights we saw today! This day was truly a sensory overload.
First we drove down the winding coastal road that included the stunning scenery of steep mountains reaching down to the roaring white-capped seas, crazily eroded rocks jutting up out of foaming waters and enormous sprays as the powerful waves pounded against them.
The steep mountain sides were coated in beautiful native scrubland, some varying from tangled low bushes that were sculpted by the incessant sea gales to the tall forests behind protected ridges. Everywhere were the ubiquitous tree ferns, tangled with all types of vegetation, growing as happily with dense bushes as with mossy beech trees. Jutting out above it all were the strange Nikau palms with their erect fronds and bulbous leaf sheaths, the most southern of all the palm species.
Then we encountered the geological wonders of the Pancake Rocks, weird layered limestone structures that appeared at first to be sedimentary (“My dear Watson” says Georgie) rocks, but are in fact mysteriously unexplained formations. And to make them even more astounding were the thunderous roars of the huge waves that battered incessantly at their bases and forced huge geyser-like sprays through dissolved and twisted blowholes.
We wandered about the well made paths, ogling in awe at these amazing spectacles and carefully protected our cameras from the resulting showers of salt spray.
Moving a bit inland we explored Lake Kaniere and its gorgeously mossy mature beech forests, taking walks through that amazingly damp and mossy wonderland, cameras working overtime. The waterfalls and dark green shady forests ringing the lake were absolutely wonderful and incredibly soothing to our souls. Georgie had a delightful encounter with a friendly Weka bird who cautiously investigated the edibility of her toenails.
At the lovely BnB we stayed in the only dampener for the day was that our camera SD card reader decided to pack it in so we couldn’t download any of the hundred-odd pics we took today. Tomorrow we will purchase a new reader and put up as many pictures as we can. Promise!
You can often use the camera itself as a card reader if the camera has a USB (usually a micro-USB) connector somewhere on the body. Often the connector is hidden under a little flap or inside the place where the SD card goes. You just need a suitable cable (they’re cheap) with a standard USB connector on one end and a appropriate (usually micro-USB) connector on the other end. This avoids having to keep pulling the delicate SD card out of the camera each day to put in the card reader. It also means you don’t have to carry a card reader.
You might already have the correct lead as most card readers use a similar lead.
Also, it might be worth checking the camera’s settings to see if it has WiFi and/or Bluetooth connectivity. (Bluetooth is a simplified kind of wireless transfer.) If so, you might be able to transfer the pictures to your laptop computer without even needing a cable.
Note: turn off WiFi and Bluetooth for any devices that are not explicitly using it as it wastes battery power. Same with GPS location… though if your camera has GPS it can be very useful to later on exactly link your photos to spots on a map or GoogleEarth… but remember to turn that off if you happen to snap something if you don’t want its location identified. Though I can show you how to remove that information from the photo later if you ever need to.