Traveling alone is not always easy but the good thing about it is that it pushes you to go out of your comfort zone and meet new people. That's how this happened... While I was in Queenstown, New Zealand, I was blown away by the amazing scenery surrounding me. As I was traveling by myself, I couldn't help but thinking that it was such a waste not to be able to share these gorgeous views with anybody but myself. On the first night there, I was planning what I was going to do the following day, and I had in mind to climb Queenstown Hill  to the summit of Te Tapu-nui (mountain of intense sacredness) Yes it's indeed pretty intense up there:



However, I was determined not to do it alone. Not only was I determined to find people to accompany me through the climb but I wanted to shoot them on top of the mountain too! I didn't  know where or how I could find last minute "climb buddies"... I asked myself where it'd be possible to connect with people in Queenstown very quickly... and suddenly it struk me : INSTAGRAM ! Yes, I would find people on Instagram by searching  #Queenstown ! (God bless Hashtags!). After all, that's how I met so many wonderful people before, just like these two here . So here I was, searching for people on my phone. First, I came across some amazing wedding photos taken in Queenstown, and I thought, "man...this is amazing, I want to meet this photographer!" so I just commented on his photo asking him if he had any time to meet for a coffee tomorrow, in the following hour I received yes as a reply, I was beyond thrilled and so that's how I met the amazing Jim Pollard, one of the most talented, open-minded and humble wedding photographers I've met so far. Make sure to check out his work !
Galvanized by this first fruitful Instagram search, I then continued to look for my "climb buddies" when I came across a cute selfie of a couple mentioning  " Honeymooning in Queenstown". And I just thought "That's it! I want them!", so I commented on their picture asking them if they would be free to climb on top of a mountain tomorrow with me for a photoshoot - in my heart, I thought they'll just think, I'm just some crazy random girl - but...few minutes later, they replied : "We actually have no plans for tomorrow and think that would be really cool. Let us know what you're thinking". Voilà ! Brittany and Tim picked me up the next morning and off we went through the pine forest, climbing the mountain of intense sacredness. It was so beautiful up there, and we had so much fun, let alone the fact that these two aussie newlyweds were such an oh-so good looking couple ! I let you judge for yourself ....




Mostly film shot on Mamiya 645 | Fuji 400H | Processed by Carmencita Film Lab.