Mount Maunganui (Mauao)
In keeping with my resolution to have a second look around my hometown after this little experience, I grabbed my gear the other evening and went out to photograph a scene I’ve wanted to for some time, but haven’t yet got around to. Of course, it didn’t take much hunting to find this location, but it is still in my hometown, so it counts.
Mount Maunganui, or Mauao (the indigenous Maori name), is affectionately known here in New Zealand simply as ‘The Mount’. Admittedly, it’s not a particularly original or imaginative name, but it is what it is. The extinct volcano sits at the inlet to Tauranga Harbour and can be seen right throughout the Western Bay Of Plenty.
The Mount is considered to be one of New Zealand’s top holiday locations due to its close proximity to Auckland, the climate and the white-sand surf beach that stretches for miles past Papamoa and down the east coast of the North Island. It’s also often high on the list of the many tourists who come to NZ as a travel vacation destination.
This particular night I had been watching the sky and it looked like it was going to turn on a gorgeous sunset behind the mountain, but a big cloud front pushed over and shattered my hopes. Such is the way with landscape photography. I had some fun with long exposures anyway and came up with something I’m happy with. This is a 60-second exposure, which as you can see has made the ocean nice and milky and peaceful when the surf was actually pumping.
