The night before, I was in bed in my hotel just before 8:30 pm (had to be up well before dawn to get this shot you see here!) and heard the glassware in the mini bar start to jingle and then the bed started to quiver ( the bed was NOT equipped with "Magic Fingers"!). I realized we were having an earthquake and stood in the door as "protection". I was on the 4th floor of my hotel and could definitely feel the building swaying. I remember thinking the whole building was going to collapse. Was I better off to be up that high or to try to so down the stairs to the street? I recall not liking the results of either scenario! Of course the quake did not last long ( about 70 seconds by most accounts). The quake epicenter was centered about 136 miles from my hotel and was later determined to be a 7.8 on the Richter Scale followed by a 6.1 aftershock. Because of my distance from the epicenter it was estimated that Queenstown experienced the equivalent of a 5.8 quake. Still pretty scary I have to say! Thankfully there was minimal damage caused by this quake because the southern tip of NZ's South Island is sparsely populated and the building codes there are superb due to the natural seismic activity there. HERE is the BBC's reporting of this earthquake.
The next morning was a cold, crisp morning and we headed out to the shores of Lake Wakatipu to set up in the predawn for what we hoped would be a brilliant sunrise. The earliest light did not have much in the sky to work with, but the clouds you see were nice enough to drift in and color up nicely to give this rosy warm glow right over the Remarkables.After happily shooting this scene, we headed further north to spend a few days near Aoraki/Mt. Cook to photograph New Zealand's tallest peak. Click HERE to see my recent post of LAST LIGHT on that magnificent peak.
Rosy Fingered Dawn Over the Remarkables
Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand
Click in the image to see it in the original gallery.
Enjoy more great images by visiting SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SCENIC SUNDAY!
15 comments:
Pretty image. Have never experienced a quake and hope not to (altho seems N Tx is getting a few tremors these years).
Wow - that is magnificent and wonderful!
Truly fantastic and amazing!
Enjoy sky watching!
Happy SWF !
A breathtaking photograph AND experience!!!
Gorgeous photo, but I'll pass on the earthquake. I've never experienced anything above a 3, and it's not something on my to-do-list!
It's almost cartoonish. Beautiful shot.
Sydney - City and Suburbs
That is a stunning shot - the cloud color and formation make this really an eye-popping image.
And what a story with that earthquake!
I stand in awe. Wow, that is so amazing.
Wow! That's really thrilling!
Hiya John,
Just came back from your photo site, and I shall have to go back there soon. Wonderful.
Rosy-fingered is right.
Beautiful!
This is stunning. I love all the colors and how my eyes go right back to the mountains.
You have a wonderful blog.
Greetings from Switzerland
Angela
No wonder the mountains are called the Remarkables.
Such a peaceful photo and then I read your post of the lead-in to it, so much for the truth of images. That must have been frightening, especially now we know the damage 'quakes can cause. Impressed that you managed to keep it together to go taking photos after ...
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