Friday 2nd October
I set off from Christchurch just after 9am heading west. I decided to head out via Orana Park (Chattertons Road) and the Old West Coast Road before cutting back to Darfield, and then follow the State Highway 73 (and the Midland Railway Line) west. A rainbow was seen towards the foothills, and later a container train heading west was photographed.
Sheffield was the next stop, picking up a couple of the great pies (venison & herb and steak & kidney), consuming the first parked beside the railway line, but no further trains were seen.
Over Porters Pass the weather was closing in, but apart from a brief photo stop, I carried on to Klondyke Corner where there were three keas. One decided that the car aerial would be a good souvenir, but a malt biscuit proved a better option and my aerial was saved apart from the bite marks in it.
The rain was falling heavier now and I carried on the short distance to Arthurs Pass, and sat in the car and had my second pie and a cup of coffee. Over the pass the rain got heavier, and was very heavy between Otira and Kumara. I arrived in Greymouth about 3pm and checked into the motel (Aachen Place) and then headed the short distance into town and checked out the two book shops and Stewart Nimmo’s gallery. Stewart was in the shop and asked if I was attending the Southern Regional.
I then went down the road to the Regent Theatre and picked up my registration pack and viewed the prints that received awards. With time to kill I headed over to Mawhera Quay and took some photos. At one point I needed to get low down, and my white paints came up covered in oil and grease. Back to the motel to change and to wash the dirt out of my pants.
At 6:30pm there was the opening of the convention, MC’d by Simon Woolf, and officially performed by the mayor of Greymouth, Tony Kokshoorn, and then Andris Apse spoke of his photography, showing a range of his images from NZ and Antarctica.
Saturday 3rd
I was back seated in the Regent Theatre before 9am and the first speaker was John Doogan, and then following morning tea was local historian Les Wright (Tin Man) doing a presentation on the local gold mining history, but from an 1890s perspective. This started out slowly (boring) but moved on to be a very good presentation.
We then boarded buses for the one hour trip to Waiuta, where it was raining heavily, but that did not stop the photographers getting out in the rain. On the way out I sat with semi-professional Paul Webster (Nelson), with professionals Stewart Nimmo and John Doogan sitting behind. The conversation was interesting and varied.
Waiuta is 9km east of the main road between Greymouth and Reefton, and is an old gold mining town, and operated until 1951 when the main shaft collapsed. Many of the buildings were removed to other parts of the coast leaving just a handful of buildings left.
There were a few members of the Friends of Waiuta, dressed in period costume, and these were the subject of many agitated pixels, and possibly the odd roll of film. Lunch was provided as part of the convention, and tea or coffee could be purchased as a Waiuta fund raiser.
Simon Woolf was energetic as usual and was taking a few pics for one of his on-going projects: Red. He got fellow photographer Corri Stein to do star jumps in the pouring rain.
We arrived back in Greymouth just after 4pm and it was free time before the convention dinner at Shantytown, 6km south of Greymouth. Entertainment in the old music hall was in the form of the local Can-can group followed by the dinner and a few awards presented. A great evening. I drove back to the motel with a couple of passengers, Bruce Jensen who was also staying at Aachen Place and the Greens (Frank & Carolyn) who were staying right in Greymouth.
Sunday 4th
There were two early morning trips to partake, the first one to Lake Mahinapua departing at 5:30am, and one two Blaketown and Tiphead departing at 6:30am. I set the alarm on the cellphone for 5:50am, but had forgotten to alter the clock to daylight saving time, so it was not going to activate till 6:50am. I heard some activity outside the motel and looked to see the time of 6:25am, so was out of bed and dressed in very quick time, loaded the camera and tripod into the car, but was still a few minutes late in getting to the Regent Theatre, so headed off alone to the beach beside the airport.
It was a cold morning with the mist hanging the other side of the two buttresses that form the short gorge that the Grey River come out of, and soon the sun was shining on the mountains (Tasman, Cook and others) far to the south.
I did some “blurred water” shots using the two filters Trevor Green loaned me and these were effective.
Looking from beside Greymouth Airport back towards the town and gap through which the Grey River comes.
Looking south from the same location with the morning sun hitting the mountains.
I returned to the motel for coffee and breakfast and then packed up the car, checked out and headed back to the Regent, where the first session of the day was Kevin Tyree of Invercargill. Kevin and his brother Peter are descendants of early New Zealand photographers Tyree Brothers, and they themselves were sons of an earlier brother partnership in England in the mid nineteenth century. Kevin also outlined his wife’s ancestry, as a member of the Speight brewing family, so his presentation on being prepared for photography was interspersed with short clips of humours and Speights beer adverts. Most attendees were lauding this presentation as the best one they have ever seen at any photographic convention, whether national or regional. Kevin was the top award winner at last year’s regional (Rangiora) where I came second, and again was a top award winner this year.
One Christchurch Photographic Society member who shoots mainly natural history and photo-journalism was absent for this presentation, preferring to shoot waves down at the beach. I understand that Georgie McKie gave the said person a right tune up for missing this fantastic presentation!
After morning tea it was time for MC Simon Woolf to do his presentation and this was also filled with wit and humour. He showed a lot of his commercial work including weddings. The question and answer session after this was as hilarious as the presentation.
