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Adventure NZ Podcast #1 Adventureman Dan

The topics of podcasts has been something I’ve taken particular interest in for a few years now. To be perfectly honest I don’t watch (if we’re talking video) or listen to too many but I get quite into the ones I do.

I’ve wanted to do one for a couple of years, every so often I’d think about. More recently I’ve thought about it a lot more and realised it was time to pull the trigger.

Seek blog

First up we have a friend of mine I finally managed to catch up with after a few months of contact. I would love to fill you in with words but that would defeat the purpose of the podcast wouldn’t it. Dan is from America and is somewhat of a skilled and very enthusiastic spearfisherman with plenty of great things to say about New Zealand.

Dan blog 2

 

Find the video podcast below

And even a downloadable (I think) Soundcloud link

We spent a few days tripping about in the far north, you can find the adventure on OXS TV here or on the blog post from the trip.

On a serious note I have penciled this podcast in for a once a month type thing which I feel is achievable. I would love to feature people with opinions, interests and skills that suit the Adventure NZ tag so feel free to nominate someone! I already have a few people lined up. I’ve figured it’ll take a while to find my feet with this but it’s going to be a blast!

See you at the beach.

-Sam

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The Mice Played

Mid week last week rolled around and it was time to hit the road again. The team of Mice, consisting of my Dad, Uncle, a friend from America and myself were heading north for a few days of fun, in and on the water. The cat (my Mum) was heading south for a weekend doing whatever cats do.

Dan dunes blog

A long drive on Thursday night brought me to Houhora in good spirits and good weather.

Friday morning we got out on the water for a very green and quiet spear. The afternoon could be the most scenic and enjoyable few hours I’ve had lately. Check it

North Cape was Saturdays destination. North Cape is more north than Cape Reinga in case you didn’t know. We dove there at New Years with some bronzies. We ate shark on Saturday. Find it here

Sunday was moving day and a rather spontaneous filming of my first video podcast which I believe will be live this Sunday

I’ve shot a heeeeap of images up north in the last couple of weeks so I will think I will throw together a separate blog post featuring them as well as a couple of videos.

Cape blue blog

Stay tuned for the podcast. I will see you at the beach!

-Sam

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The Wild Horses Of Spirits Bay

Horses are funny creatures. Most are contained to a paddock, forced to be ridden by us humans. The lucky few are let to roam free, exploring the wide open expanses of the country side without a care in the world (I assume).

Horses 2 blog

I’ve visited Spirits Bay in the far north of New Zealand many times now and have seen a horse or two on most of these visits. Once or twice they’ve even been standing in the middle of the road.

On this day they were perched high up on the cliffs just standing and watching. I popped the drone up in the air expecting them to scarper like domesticated horses do and nothing. They did nothing. One battery of shooting later and I had this little production below which I feel is possibly my best work to date!

I am super happy with the results, they only thing I wish I could change is that I shot another batteries worth of footage. You can see the vlog from the day here

Please feel free to share this clip around!

Horses 4 blog

See you at the beach.

-Sam

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My #1 Reason Why I Love Aerial Photography

I’ve been flying and shooting with drones for coming up two years now and love it. I love being able to put the camera in the air and follow things about. Flying that little (in the case a Phantom) machine about really does draw a lot of attention, which oddly enough is the least interesting part of it to me.

The how far, how much does it cost, what do you do with the photos etc etc type question do get pretty old, pretty quick.

While they are incredible pieces of tech, my main and number one point of interest from the very start, was being able to put a camera in a place I physically can’t get to. This image of the wild horses at Spirits Bay in the far north really got me thinking about this. I was about 100m below and 300m away when I shot this. I certainly wasn’t prepared to get too close in person for the fear of being stampeded. Do horses even do that? Unless I had an actual helicopter and a huge lens, there was no real way to get this snap without a drone. The weird thing is that they weren’t bothered the slightest by this little machine buzzing about.

Horse view blog

I wouldn’t be able to get this shot any other (realistic) way and holds true for so many images. Here’s a couple more of my favourites.

Cliff Top blogWhale Chris blogCauseway 3 resize

I’m dropping a 4K edit of these horses on Monday so you can hold your breath until then. Or just browse my YouTube channel while you wait.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Snooping The Snaps

Ahh yes Snapper. The kiwi favourite, found in abundance and targeted by fisherman and spearfisherman everywhere.

While they are pretty straight forward to catch on a rod, underwater it’s a different story. Spooky is the best way to sum them up. You have to see them before they see you, most of the time.

I say most of the time because the first time I swam over this ledge I spotted it and I’m pretty sure it spotted me. A quick little burley, a new angle of attack and BAM! Check it below

Beautiful eating as you more than likely know. You can find the full trip in last weeks blog post hereeeeeeeee

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Making A Long Weekend Even Longer

Who gets a long weekend for their birthday? The Queen that’s who. Keeping in mind, this long weekend isn’t actually her birth date (April 21st which also clashes with mine) which is kind of strange.

I was eyeing up this three day celebration for some time. An invite to a 30th birthday celebration at Matauri Bay and a passable weather forecast had my name stamped on it. Friday morning saw our first frost of the Winter. I took special note of this as I threw my tent into my ute.

Matauri Sunset blog

Arriving at Matuari Bay a shade after 4pm I got settled in and helped set up camp. Gladly there was room inside and even a heater for the night!

One thing to note at Maturi Bay is all the petty theft. Ongoing reports at the campground mean put your stuff away and lock your vehicles. It’s a sad but harsh truth of the place. I recall going there several years ago, parking up at the beach and walking south. According to the man who come spoke to us that we were on the wrong end of the beach and had to go the other way.

Early start on Saturday for sunrise and a dive. The first weekend vlog is action from Saturday and Sunday. I’m holding some footage of the wild horse for another edit

Monday the forecasted weather hit for the little trip to the Cape and a dive at Spirits Bay

After all my trips to the Cape I can’t believe I never walked down that track!

Tuesday was the trek home in very average weather and surf checks

This week was also the week I gave away the canvas pano of Omaha. Congrats again to Debbie Crane!

Name edit

That’s it for this week, back in the groove and working on a lot of content. A LOT!

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Yay For May

May was fairly trying for myself. The weather…. Oh boy the weather and your moods. The rain, wind and occasional sunshine made the month of May pretty tricky. Find the monthly video wrap up below

I do discuss professional people in this so if this is you then please get in touch. I’m ready.

Vlog of the month

Pic of the month (lucky to get a nice morning)

Takatu Lodge 1 blog

Winter is now here but you’ll still see me at the beach!

-Sam

 

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Seeking Professional Help

Boat 1 blog

First and foremost this isn’t a cry for help. This is however, a fairly desperate attempt at joining up with creative professionals. This is difficult to write because the butthurt is always real when you have to pull from real life experiences. It is and has been time to start making moves for a long time now.

After a chat to someone the other day who can see my distress in going away for another long weekend, alone. Keeping in mind I am going to a friends 30th for the first couple of nights so I guess it’s not alone but it feels it. It is the same situation as the Great Barrier trip, where I have gone the last couple of years with people I hardly know (one of whom isn’t even from this country) but now regard as good friends. My more “regular” friends nowhere to be seen.

Anyway over the course of this chat we established that I need to being dealing with professionals. By professionals I mean those who get paid to do a certain thing, are committed to said thing and most of all, passionate about said thing! That criteria is a must as simply doing “things” for the claimed love of it doesn’t seem to work.

A THIS trip mentality is what I need, not a NEXT trip mentality.

I understand that we all have commitments likes jobs, debt and relationships. All of which are overly consuming. We’ve also sold ourselves on this BS that we’re all so gosh darn busy. So busy it seems that we can’t make time for the things we love, or claim to love. The number of people who say the want to but can’t is quite frankly, disturbing.

Everyone seems so bloody exhausted that the thought of getting up early and doing “things” seems to be something you have to ration out to maybe once a year. Twice if you feel daring.

So the people I’m after are those people who have a track record or doing “things”. A paper trail of receipts and a few SD cards full of files for proof. Water babies that think the cool winter waters are interesting and refreshing. Creators who create. Photographers that like to push that shutter button hundreds of times over a few days. Surfers who love to surf. Skimmers who love to skim. Sprearos who love to spear. Adventurers who love to adventure. If you have a following I would like to follow you. Hopefully not in a weird, behind the bushes kind of way.

In my opinion it’s not that hard but it is also something I’m passionate about. I love it more than most people love anything at all. It’s my chosen line of work, even though the pay sucks. It’s how I like to spend my time rather than putting a long weekend on hold because I might have to meet someone for lunch.

The next little while we see myself setting up a video podcast that will hopefully discuss a variety of topics. I just need to find professional, opinionated people who I can get on it. This requires a no, to yes men. Opinions and ideas and what I’m after. Not head nods and cancellations. I’m now really trying to expand my reach into bigger platforms, people and ideas, which is interesting to say the least.

This is all probably a bit bitter and well it probably is. I’m a bit bitter that I’m going away again with a list of awesome things to do and see, alone.

I would love to take ideas for videos and photos and put them into action. Not having to constantly think of ways to film myself would be awesome. To my creative professionals, check out my daily videos below and throw some ideas at me as to how we could make them better. I have a million ideas and I hope you do too!


To the rest of you, I’ll sure I will see you at the beach, next time.

-Sam

 

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Mt Tamahunga – Matakanas Mountain

Have you ever looked at Mt Tamahunga from the eastern side (lets use Omaha for example) and realised how much of the landscape it dominates?

Estuary blog

It’s a lot. So much so, that the sun actually sets earlier in the northern end of Omaha, than the southern end. This only applies over the colder months as the sun slides to the south in Summer.

It is the biggest peak in the immediate area, not that there’s much to challenge it. With a moderate level of fitness the walk from Omaha Valley Road only takes about a hour. It can take longer if you miss the first sign posting in the dark and wander off down the farm tracks but that’s a story for another day.

Weather ball blog

I shot most of this little clip a couple of months ago and figured I could throw something together out of the footage. Enjoy.

The walk is through dense native bush and is only spoiled by the fact you can’t actually see much when you get to the top. The aforementioned dense bush tends to block the views for most people, making a drone the perfect tool for the job.

Hella trees blog

Enjoy the walk if you choose to go. I believe you can attack it from a few sides but I’ve only taken the Omaha Valley Rd route. In case you’re wondering there’s a car park on the left side of the road for it.

See you at the beach.

-Sam

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Double The Fun

The last week has been quietly satisfying. I’m not too sure why but there has been a series of small wins.

If it weren’t for the weather, which has just been plain rubbish then it’d be pretty much 10/10 out there.

J 1 flip blog

I have dropped a couple of other blog posts this week, one regarding the first look at Tugg Winches which you need to check out if you’re keen on a bit of tugging. As well as my giveaway for a realllly beautiful looking pano of Omaha. Get along to my Facebook page and share this photo here.

Giveaway edit blog

Hours have been spent this week revisiting older photos and getting rid of some of the garbage. Quite boring but there’s plenty of gems lurking.

What lies Beneath blog

I’ve been out shooting a bit of footage (around this weather) and the last weekend was another great bit of fun! Speared another new spot which was holding some nice fish (not that we came back with any) and another big bronzie spotted off Ti Point. Came in quick and smashed my burley, I was alone at the time so was a good rush to see him chomping some fish heads. Find it here

Shark blog

Sunday we went and caught the booming West Coast swell then back to Waiwera for a very enjoyable winch session

Ripper of a weekend and a solid week. I managed to jump in the water this morning for a cheeky spear and came back in with two nice Kingfish in a hour. Smoking them up tomorrow, yeahhh boy!

C’mon weather!

Kingy blog

See you at the beach.

-Sam