Moonlight in Horomaka Country

I'm spending the weekend with Horomaka and Mrs H, at their home in the Kaituna Valley, on Banks Peninsula. We've taken ourselves, and our cameras. high up on the hills (Horomaka's knee is definitely improving, but I think we went a tad too far), and down to Lake Ellesmere where we spotted spoonbills and a white heron (kotuku), and lots of swans - amongst many other birds. It's no wonder Horomaka is such a devoted fan of this area; it's incredibly beautiful.

Mrs H's moroccan dinner just about had me persuaded to forgo our evening shoot but we made it down to the neighbour's sheep yards to shoot for the stars, with added light from the waxing crescent moon. The sky was absolutely filled with stars! Horomaka is a lot more proficient at using Nik software than I am so I've been having a bit of a tutorial while we've been processing our images :)