Turbulent Times

Today's post takes me back to a very "turbulent" time of my life. Back in July of 2009, I was lucky enough to have the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream and visit New Zealand. I spent 3 weeks there. The first week was centered around my presentation at an educational conference on the North Island. The next two weeks were spent touring the South Island specifically to photograph some of the amazing scenery there. Several days of our trip were spent in and around the "Adventure Capital" of New Zealand, Queenstown. I spent little time in the town proper except to sleep as the great sights were away from the city center. I did happen to be in my hotel on the night of July 15th. At 9:22 pm, I was in my bed watching TV (we were planning a dawn photo shoot for 7/16!) when the turbulence started! At first my bed started to feel like a waterbed and then I heard the bottles and glasses in the mini bar start to jingle. As soon as I realized what was happening, I got up and opened the door of my 4th floor hotel room and stood there. The motion of the earthquake was a rolling one, and felt as if I was on a ship in rough seas. The scariest part for me was standing  in the door and thinking that I did not want to "ride" the building down in case of a collapse, but I also did not want to be in the lobby area if there was a collapse. Of course, the quake was over before I had a chance to settle my potential "lose - lose" situation.  Thankfully, there was no damage to the hotel and all returned to normal after a bit and my nerves settled. 


Given the amazing level of connectedness we have, I knew within minutes of  going online the location and magnitude of the earthquake. It was a 7.8 magnitude that struck 115 miles away from Queenstown in the Tasman Sea off of the coast of the New Zealand near Dusky Sound. (Click here for technical details). This quake was one of the top 4 most powerful earthquakes in the world that year! 



Rosy fingers Dawn Over the Remarkables(Click the image to see it in the original Blue Lion Gallery)
The image you see here was taken the next morning from the shores of Lake Wakatipu. The mountains are called the "Remarkables" and host a large ski area on the back side.  The morning was a very calm one which was a definite contrast to the excitement of the previous turbulent night! 
Thankfully, the quake was remote enough that no people were injured and property damage was minimal. By comparison, the devastation of a smaller quake in an urban area can be extreme. The Haitian earthquake of January, 2010 measured "only" a 7.0 on the Richter Scale and the deadly Christchurch earthquake in February, 2011 was "only" a 6.3 on the Richter Scale. I know I remain grateful for the location of the Dusky Sound earthquake and also for New Zealand's strict building codes which dramatically reduce the damage of earthquakes. 
I'm curious as to what earthquake experience my Blue Lion Blog readers may have had. Please feel free to share your experiences in the comment section below. 

"Remarkable" Dawn

Today's post is of dawn over the Remarkables mountain range just outside of Queenstown New Zealand. The image was taken on my last morning in Queenstown and came after a rather sleepless night as we had just experienced the effects of the word's strongest earthquake of 2009.

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!