new zealand love by josh olins

It’s January 16th 2023 and I find myself alone, parked in an old Land Rover Defender complete with roof tent and basic camping equipment, my tattered canvas Billingham bag at my side, packed tight with cameras and film, a duffle bag with possibly too many clothes of my own and 2 more packed full with babaà knitwear. A new and embarrassingly shiny surfboard tops it all off, seats flat, organized with enough anal retention to make my Virgo step father proud. Squeezed into a small nook in the very basic dashboard are two shining blue spines, the Lonely Planet Guide; one for the North Island and another for the South. It makes me laugh. The books are pristine, not a crease in sight. I laugh again, this time recounting the sarcastic suggestion of my younger brother that I should start a lifestyle blog: Salt ’n Pepper Land Rover Guy. I am a cliche, I am unprepared, I have no itinerary, no plan. But, I am in New Zealand, a country that i’ve always wanted to visit which to me always felt so far removed from everything else in the world that in my mind it represented a haven from all the madness and difficulties of the past few years. A perfect place to roam free in a natural landscape that I’ve always dreamed to see and photograph.

This collection of images represents just a few of the  landscapes that I saw on my journey which started in Christchurch and zig zagged back and forth across the South Island between the mountains and the ocean before heading up the West Coast and through wine country to catch the ferry to Wellington. Time spent in Taranaki and then Raglan before heading cross country to Mount  Maunganui, narrowly avoiding the devastating Cyclone that was fast approaching and out of Auckland in the nick of time.

Mostly the project focuses on the incredible people that I met along the way, that gave me their time, that told me a little about themselves, that opened their doors to me and pointed me in the direction of the most unique places and experiences, some shared, some alone. Be it incredible meat pies, coffee and donuts, mountain trails, river waves, swimming holes, secret crystal clear gorges with high walls carpeted in glistening moss and trickling water, deserted wild beaches littered with driftwood and nothing but freshly hunted venison to cook over a campfire whilst the sky turned pink at the sunset and the Hector dolphins leapt form the surface of the water.

New Zealand left me with with a new confidence in people and the generosity of strangers, it taught me that simply being open and less fearful of the unknown can lead to truly memorable encounters and in my case a shared moment captured in a photograph and held in a beautiful memory. It kindled a desire to travel alone more often, for it is in this way that we dare to seek out new people and new experiences and are rewarded when we find them.

Josh Olins

PHOTO CREDITS