All journeys must begin somewhere, and ours began here. After collecting a rental car, we took a quick jaunt out to Port Chalmers, then north to Oamaru, and along the Waitaki river to Twizel, South Canterbury.
Port Chalmers
Iona Church, from the Flagstaff lookout. A glorious day for a long drive!
A container ship docked in the port. The reflections in the water make this shot for me, thank goodness the harbor was mostly still. 
Another (different) container ship, this time disturbing the still harbor with its wake. 
A look to Taiaroa Head and the Spit. Beyond those havens is the Pacific Ocean… later in this journey we will touch the Tasman Sea and claim a coast-to-coast adventure. 
The Harbor Cone, and a tug doing its very best. The foreground shows Quarantine Island. 
Becca (left) and Katelyn (right), investigating something of note. 
Jack (left) and Katelyn discussing the merits of climbing a very old tree. 
Spotted! 
One discarded apple, left for the ants and the birds… 
And helpfully pointed out by a friend… 
Moving up the hill to the Centenary Lookout, with a couple of memorials to Robert Falcon Scott and his ill-fated expedition. Surely that’s not a bad omen, right? 
The Scott Memorial. See you again soon, although I may be some time… And so we leave Dunedin with spirits high!
Sea Cliff
A brief stop at the Truby King historic reserve yielded a few more good portraits.
An action shot, although maybe a little incriminating… a theme throughout this trip is Jack and Becca looking for signs saying ‘do not climb’… and then sitting places one should not. 
You might think Katelyn is also a photographer, but alas she was just holding the camera. Waitaki River, Hydroelectric Power Stations
Jumping well North, now, but I won’t keep you with every minor detail. The next major leg took us up the Waitaki River, during which we visited the hydroelectric power stations to marvel at feats of engineering.
Waitaki
The historic Waitaki dam, opened in 1934. 
Becca dwarfed by the immense Lake Waitaki. I upped the saturation here, but I think it’s a nice portrait. 
Jack joining Becca on the trail. 
Climbing an old turbine and finding a seat. 
Switching to 135mm gives much better portraits at the cost of much more cropped frames! 
A look down the road from the Waitaki dam, towards distant mountains that are our destination this evening. Aviemore
The residents of the Aviemore dam, wondering why I am so interested in power generation infrastructure. 
The sunset over Lake Aviemore, behind the Aviemore dam. 
A very wide view over the lake. 
Silhouetting the far shore to bring out the clouds and sunset is a nice contrast to the previous images! Benmore
Benmore dam spillways. Benmore, opened 1965, is the second-largest dam in the country, and the largest earth-fill dam. 
The residents at Benmore Spillway Apartments. I hear they have a reoccurring problem with leaks. 
Another seat, this time well above Benmore looking out across the land. 
Again, 135mm is the way to go for portraits! But getting the framing is hard. 
The first portrait of Becca! 
You might think this is just a Toyota advertisement, but I implore you to check on who is resting in the passengers seat. The light at this point was fading, and not particularly flattering for the dams anyway.
Twizel
Arriving in Twizel well past sunset, we settled in quickly and had no time or ability for good photographs.
The finals of the AFL was on this evening, a sport that Becca follows religiously. 
You might detect some rather heated emotions from these shots. 
Thankfully, her team won! 
One final shot from inside the motel for the night. Tomorrow holds more opportunity, so see you then!
