Sunrise over Deliverance Cove, Castlepoint, Wairarapa

This photograph was taken from Castle Hill, a 154-metre high limestone monolith that towers over the southern end of Castlepoint’s Deliverance Cove. Due to this coast’s orientation from northeast to southwest it was necessary to take this photo in winter in order to have the rising sun visible in the photograph, taking advantage of the fact that the sun rises north of east there at that time of year (at any other time of year the sun would have risen from a more easterly or southeasterly direction, putting it out of the picture). Obviously, too, I needed a reasonably clear morning.

In early August 2006 I decided to give this idea a go, on the basis of a forecast of clear skies and also because it was the right time of year for what I had in mind. I drove to Castlepoint at dusk the previous evening, and, after spending the night on the beach just below Castle Hill, rose early to climb up to this clifftop vantage point in time for sunrise. As forecast the sky had been clear the night before, but, as sunrise approached, a canopy of high cloud began to spread from the west on a rising nor’west wind. Fortunately the northeastern horizon remained clear, and when the sun finally appeared I had enough time to get this photograph before the sun disappeared into the gathering overcast.