Our town of Tapanui in West Otago, New Zealand was bathed in a weird glow this morning due to smoke drift from the bushfires in Australia. Now at 1.00pm the strange glow has vanished but it’s still very smoky toward the Blue Mountains and when we go outside the smell of bushfire smoke is instantly recognisable.
These photos were taken with my new camera (as were the photos taken by me at Horseshoe Bend yesterday). I had to significantly beef up the saturation during editing to get the colour about right. If the green of hedge and grass seems a little un-natural it’s not me pushing the saturation too much – it really did look unreal outside and I’ve tried to get that across in the photos (the glow is more noticeable if you’re viewing them full-size).
All photos 900 pixels wide. I’ve put a link on them so click on any photo to enlarge.
In this shot the sky isn’t as coloured as it really was but I wanted to post the photo because it shows the sheep on the section next door to us. You can also see the Blue Mountains are hazy with the smoke.
Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2019)
Exploring Colour 
Been hazy in Whanganui as well. A sad reminder of the sufferings of our friends across the ditch
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Our son Tom tells me it was very weird in Wanaka yesterday. Having flown in to NZ from Sydney last month, helps me to appreciate the scale of this disaster. Deeply worrying.
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The new decade isn’t exactly off to a good start.
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That smoke can’t be doing anyone any good – take care!
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Neither of us have breathing problems but it’s a concern for asthmatics or anyone with lung trouble. Fortunately for us it’s only happened on a couple of days (with a big gap in between).
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Yes, it is an eerie thing when smoke from fires envelopes your area. It happens here in the summer quite often. I hope it clears up soon.
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In our town we had quite a lot of rain last night, and a loud thunderstorm. I think the gunk is all gone and we have a normal overcast day. Happy New Year Louella.
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The same to you😊
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I checked out the links in some of the comments. That the pictures are beautiful, in their way, only makes it all seem more unreal and scary. I hope you and Nigel will keep safe.
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Thank you and Happy New Year Susan. Unlike Australia we’ve had plenty of cool and rainy weather – unusually so for this time of year when we’re supposed to be enjoying summer!
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I was thinking that the haze doesn’t seem like wholesome fresh air.
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It’s not, and it smells of bushfire too. We mostly stayed inside that day, it wasn’t pleasant outside with the unearthly glow and the slightly tainted smell in the air. Potentially a threat to people who have breathing or lung problems (we don’t thankfully). I’m glad it was just for the one day. I can’t bear to think of so many Australians who are forced to live months on end in polluted air.
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This is very eerie, a poignant cry from across the Tasman Sea.
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Interesting. Here at Mudgee in central west New South Wales we’ve had oppressive smoke since mid November. From bushfires around Sydney. Yesterday we had a westerly wind for the first time in many weeks and the smoke had significantly diminished…so now I know where it’s gone…very surprised that it’s reached you though.
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There’s loads of ‘weird sky’ photos from around the south on Twitter. We can smell the smoke as well. There was an interesting photo of dust from the bushfires on snow near Franz Josef glacier ‘caramelised snow’. The snow was white yesterday. Here’s the link if you’re interested: https://twitter.com/Rachelhatesit/status/1212149468579028993
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Thanks. Interesting photos of the snow…interesting commentary too.
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Smoke does strange and interesting things to the sky — and eyes and lungs, for that matter. It’s no wonder that you’re being so affected. Your photos certainly show it. And look at this sky at Mallacoota. I’m glad for the ability to connect to overseas media for stories like this.
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That sky is so angry and scary. If you’re interested you could take a look at this tweet showing a photo of a mayor addressing her community – the glow through the building’s windows is surreal! Link: https://twitter.com/hamishNews/status/1211802925497901056/photo/1
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Yep, hard to capture the weird and frightening colour. Bushfire smoke haze from wide-spread devastation still hangs around Brisbane after several months.
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