Sunset on the Lake

Sunset over Lake Garda

Another old picture, this time from a family holiday to the town of Bardolino by Lake Garda in Italy. It's a really lovely area and a great spot for a holiday - this fact was reinforced when I went to uni and the subject came up in conversation one night, it turned out that of the four people in the room, three of us had been holiday to the exact same town!

Most curious moment of the holiday: going for an evening walk by the lakeside we came across a concert being held by an Italian Pink Floyd tribute band, in aid of the orphans of the Chernobyl crisis. It also featured one of the orphans rapping in Ukrainian. The ceremonies were conducted in both Italian and German, and I was just about able to get the gist of what was going on and explain to my family. Never have I felt so proud of my dodgy grasp of the German language.

Queenstown, NZ

By Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, New Zealand

And we're back to our regular every-other-day photography service! I've been kicking myself lately because there's been a few times when I've been out and about and seen opportunities for some really interesting photos...and I haven't had my camera with me. Fail! But along with a new resolution to try to carry a camera with me more often, that's also inspired me to dig out some old pictures from before I started this blog. This one, as with several upcoming photographs, was taken on my old camera which was nowhere like as good as my current one. For a fairly reasonably-priced non-DSLR camera, my current one is great, but my previous one was not as good - but it would be a shame to let all the nice pictures I've taken on it languish on my hard drive, so I'm posting them anyway.

This photograph was taken on my gap year, when I was staying at a youth hostel by the shore of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, on New Zealand's South Island. I was there in May/June 2007, right as the winter season was beginning. Queenstown's a big spot for adventure tourism; me and the friend I was travelling with wanted to go hang-gliding, but the weather wasn't good enough. But we did manage a trip to an ice bar, a cruise around the incredibly beautiful Milford Sound and a speed boat trip.

Oh, and a canyon swing, which was terrifying. I refused to go bungee jumping, because I can't think of anything worse that doesn't involve actual bodily dismemberment. But we wanted to do something adventurous, and as hang-gliding was off, we settled on the canyon swing as a good alternative. I thought I could probably cope better with falling off a cliff if I was at least the right way up.

What the hell is a canyon swing? I hear you cry. Well, in this case it's a platform 360ft (109m, if you're feeling metric) above the Shotover River. You stand on said platform, after being tied into a harness, and then you jump off it, freefalling for 60m and then the "swing" aspect kicks in and you're transformed into a giant pendulum swinging wildly back and forth above the river. If you're a complete mentalist - like my friend - you can mix it up by, say, tipping yourself backwards off the platform while tied to a plastic chair. If like me you're terrified of heights, you can just jump off, though I should warn you that a split second after doing so you will be genuinely convinced that you've just accidentally committed suicide.

Monet

It's hard to look at this and not be reminded of a Monet. Apparently you can actually visit his garden at Giverny in France, the site of the famous bridge and waterlilies. Interestingly, Monet suffered from cataracts towards the end of his life, which may have been reflected in his paintings, which at the time they were affecting his vision had a redder hue than previously; after he underwent surgery to remove the cataracts in 1923, the hue of his paintings changed again, and he was possibly able to see further into the ultraviolet spectrum than is normal - he even repainted some of his earlier works to give them a bluer hue. Intriguing!