Autumn Leaves

Last week I spent a few days down in the South Island around Queenstown and Wanaka, mainly to try and photograph the Autumn Colours. Apparently the term for this is a “Leaf Peeper”!

I’ve been several times before, but always in Spring or Summer, so this was the first time I’d seen any of the South Island in Autumn.

Whilst there is a bit of colour in Autumn in the North Island in places (in parks north of Wellington for example), there’s not much that I’ve seen in general (at least in comparison to the Northern Hemisphere), so it was a nostalgic memory of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, seeing the very widespread colours that occur there and I grew up with.

I think I’m correct in saying that almost all of the trees in New Zealand that have leaves which change colour in the Autumn are “exotic”, non-native species that have been imported from Europe, North America and Japan, with there being very few native deciduous trees (most are evergreen), and of those very few of them actually change colour. Maples, English Beech (the native New Zealand Beech species are evergreen from what I can tell), Gum, Cherry and Horse chestnut trees seem almost certain to have been imported by early settlers, and the fact they seem to mostly be found along rivers and near settlements rather than being found out further away in more remote parts of the landscape seems to re-enforce that theory, but it’s difficult to know for certain.

Regardless, they do provide a very noticeable splash of colour on top of New Zealand’s already beautiful scenery in the area, and I did get some nice photos I’m happy with.