WideAngle Wednesday: Nature - Urupukapuka

No it's not a swear word, it's the name of this beautiful island, the largest in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand and one of nature's finest masterpieces - and fortunately today's Widwed theme is "Nature".

The weather forecast was better for this morning than for this afternoon, so we chose to do our boat trip round the Bay of Islands this morning and as you can see we had perfect conditions. The swell was quite exciting as our captain steered the catamaran towards the Hole in the Rock (see the extra) but we got through unscathed and a bit later we spent an hour on this island called Urupukapuka. There was quite a steep climb to get to the best viewpoint, but as you can see it was magnificent. I haven't enhanced the colours at all - although I admit to using a polarising filter for the photo. Please look large if you've time - it's worth it!

The island used to be privately owned, but the owner wanted to build a hotel & casino on it. Unsurprisingly there was enough objection to this plan to have it quashed, whereupon the owner in a fit of pique sold it to the NZ Government for $1.

Steveng is hosting Widwed again this week - many thanks Steve.

(PS Apologies for my lack of comments at the moment - every day is too full!)