Thats right, how many people in the world can say that they get up in the morning and look at that, when I say the edge of town i mean that the telegraph pole on the left is in the main street, in severe weather the town has been flooded by the kowhai river, the water from the left is the towns floodway, it has been breached.

The backdrop is the Seaward Kaikoura Ranges, Mt Fyffe the high point on the left I told is higher that any mountain in the UK, you can leave the valley floor in cloud and climb through it to clear blue sky above the clouds.

My first visit hear twelve years ago, i got talking to the motel owner where we were staying, he said that his daughter had just phoned from London and said that she wasn’t coming back, look at it he said, is this not paradise? I replied, at twenty I could see how you wouldn’t think that there was any thing here, she has just gone to one of the biggest toy shops in the world, any thing you want 24/7, but don’t worry, she will be back, not now, may not even be for twenty years or more, but rest assured, New Zealand and places like Kaikoura have a purity beyond most peoples grasp, she will be back.

Later in life, having done my career stint in London, run the rat race, I was happy to bring my young family here.

Now the kids are growing fast, Sam 20, Ethan nearly 16 and Eleanor 12, they will travel and see the world, but what they call home is part of heaven.

This is a very special place for me, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand.

Shot on a Nikon D700 with 17-35mm Lens, Cokin ND4 soft grad, Raw files with Active D-Lighting on High.