Chasing the Picture

After being on the move for the best part of a week, today was a much more relaxed day. A (very) late start and brunch at F St Station was a good way to get moving. F St was recommended by the lady who set up our visit and it was great sitting at the bar meeting the locals and talking with the cooks. If you are in Anchorage highly encourage lunch here.

We then dropped into the Alaska Tourist people to thank them for what they had done setting our trip up. From the “world is a small place file” one of the ladies we met had spent the last month in Dunedin because her daughter and son in law had been in an accident and were in ICU. It was fantastic to receive the feedback on how well our teams at the hospital and the wider community had worked to look after her and she couldn’t have been more positive about her experience in very difficult times.

Next up was a visit to the Alaska Public Information offices. They have a really good overview of the state and we watched a couple of films on the local

wildlife and the massive earthquake that happened here back in the 60’s. Again great people and very informative. On our wander back we found Resolution Park with a statue of Captain Cook. He spent a fair bit of time here and has named a few things.

After a rest we were onto our main event for the day – a twilight photo trek organised as part of our prize. Jodie was our guide (both driver and photographer) and we headed out early evening to visit four very different sights with Jodie helping people learn about their cameras and teaching some new techniques.

We started by Turnagain Arm with the sun going down and the ice flows passing on the tide. We then moved up into the bush and trekked a small way up to a waterfall where the photographers focused on different ways to capture the same image. The third stop took us up into the mountains overseeing Anchorage at sun set and then we finished back down on the waterfront looking back to the city.

We had a great time and Janet, our tour’s offical photographer, learnt a lot. Will be helpful when we try and capture Aurora later in the trip.

One of the odd things we fell over on the way to the last stop was Lake Hood which is the worlds busiest float plane airport. They were everywhere, some converted to ski planes for the winter. There are apparently around 600 movements a day and there are plane lots to buy and sell them.

The weather has been great with no cloud meaning we could see Denali, the highest mountain again. All the locals tell us this is very unusual. Temperatures have started at about – 10 and get up to zero later in the day.

Day rounded off with a nice red from the visitor people and a NZ Sav Blanc which are everywhere here.