Shooting Stars (Abel Tasman Nat'l Park, NZ)

The most visited park in NZ is the Abel Tasman National Park. As much as I want to stay off the beaten paths, when you keep hearing the name like that, you want to have a look.

Well it wasn’t the amazing place I thought it’d be after that whole build-up, I’d say the Marlborough Sounds region we drove through to get there was so much more interesting, but, it turned out to be a good experience.

We rented a kayak, which would have been perfect had it been for the half-day briefing on how to operate this highly complicated palindromic devise. But at some point we were on the sea, rocking with waves that sometimes made the horizon and mountain disappear. Kayaking was a better option than hiking just because my photo gear was not on my shoulders.

Saw a bit of wildlife, no wow-landscapes, but at night, I got a few photos I’m really proud of.

First off, I shot close-up pictures of the Southern Cross, a constellation only seen from the Southern Hemisphere. It’s featured on many flags of countries around here, including the kiwi flag. (Note, the line going through the picture is a satellite that moved throughout the exposure)




Then I wanted to take a wide shot of the sky, to give more of a feel of what it looked like (actually I wanted to take a photo of star streaks, but I forgot an important cable at the car so I couldn’t). While walking on the beach, looking for a cool spot to shoot the stars from, I noticed the phosphorescence caused by the plankton. Plankton are microscopic organism in the sea (they’re at the very base of the food-chain) and when this phenomenon happens, the movement of water makes them emit light. If that’s too technical an explanation: it was like in the movie The Beach, with Leonardo DiCaprio.

At first I thought it wasn’t bright enough to photograph, and decided that I’d give a shot at wearing the writer’s hat to describe how incredible the experience was. But then I also thought “screw that, I want a picture of this”. This was really tough to shoot, but keeping in mind that there’s no Photoshopping whatsoever, I think this photo is amazing.