Evacuees....

Stranded evacuees from Kaikoura were flown in by the NZ Defence Force landing at Woodend School in North Canterbury.  All seemed grateful to our Defence Force, pleased to be on firmer ground and looking forward to having a shower.

Many flights were made today, two helicopters landing in the school grounds at a time, the kids were enthralled along with a few spectators like myself and my mum, felt very proud to be a 'Kiwi' today.

The Defence Force teams and medics worked tirelessly, just landing to let the evacuees and their luggage off, a wave to the school kids before taking to the sky and heading to Kaikoura for another load. They are awesome!!

A couple of extras today but this one really tells the story, my favourite shot is my second extra.

I would like some advice on the first extra shot of the helicopter face-on and in the air. You will notice round the blades are black curved marks, it's not very appealing but how did this happen? The helicopter is coming in to land so the speed of the blades are significantly changing, are the marks a combination between my shutter speed and the blades rotating? Is there something I should've done to avoid this or is it all part of the moment? Your thoughts please :))

Let's hope the weather holds for more evacuations to be made tomorrow.

Tuesday.....I was 'jolly on the spot' for a change :)