Moria Gate Arch

Today was our final day in the Karamea area. The Seddon Shield weekend has been very busy and we have enjoyed catching up with friends from other camera clubs in the top of the South Island. Yesterday RM and I spent the morning photographing the scenery at the start of the famous Heaphy Track and then drove back down south and inland to the Oparara Basin. We joined up with other photographers at the main Car-park, had our lunch and then trekked in through the bush alongside the Oparara River in order to view the famous Oparara Arch. This is an enormous limestone arch stretching across the river. I have back-blipped an image for yesterday of the lovely reflections further downstream from the arch.
Time was running out and RM and I sadly had to forego the trek into view the smaller of the two arches in the Oparara Basin – the Moria Gate Arch.
We were determined not to leave the Karamea area without seeing this smaller arch so we cut short our stay at the Seddon Shield gathering this morning and travelled back to the Oparara Basin.
The weather rewarded us by becoming cloudy which made for better conditions for photographing the area. We walked the track to the arch. I must say I have never seen such beautiful bush. The various mosses, ferns and lichens were stunning. It is lovely rain forest through that area and the big trees are gnarled and twisted with creepers, vines and mosses covering them. It is quite magical.
The Moria Gate Arch itself is indeed magic, once one has managed to scramble down through the cave-like entrance and down under the arch. Once again the photography was challenging with heavy shade under the arch and bright green vegetation beyond the entrance. I had to borrow one of RM’s wide angle lenses as I had a bit of drama on the track and damaged my most useful lens. But that is another story. However with some playing about with different exposures and camera settings and then some adjustments in Lightroom I managed to create an image to blip for today.…