While Fiordland is great, it is not the only spectacular place in the south-west of New Zealand’s South Island. Right next to Fiordland, the Routeburn Track, one of the Great Walks of New Zealand, leads from Fiordland National Park to Mount Aspiring National Park and is usually walked in three days. I have already walked the complete track twice – in 2008 and 2011 – and did a day walk on the Eastern end, the one in Mount Aspiring National Park. This time, I decided to walk in from the Western end up to a point beyond Lake Mackenzie on the Serpentine Range.

On the two occasions I had been here, the weather had been pretty bad. On this trip, I had reserved a few days for trips in the area. For two days the clouds had been very low. But finally, the weather forecast was good and the morning looked promising. I had planned to walk up to this ridge beyond the lake because I had an idea of the photo I wanted to make. Walking in from the Divide, it took me about four hours to get to this spot, making quite a few more photos along the way.

The photograph was made with a Canon EOS 6D and an EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM lens. The exposure was 1/125 second at f/8 and ISO 200. The photograph was edited in Adobe Lightroom. You can find all of these photos along with others from this journey across New Zealand’s South Island in my album New Zealand 2013 or on Flickr.