One word - wow

Our trip to White Island was a huge success - the landscape is perfect, and as Lance and I discovered after examining the test footage, it looks even better on tape! 

We had beautiful weather, the people from White Island Tours were extremely friendly and generous, and Lance even spotted a whale and some sunfish on the way over. The landscape itself offered a wealth of possible locations and there wasn't a plant in site - it really looked just like Mars - better than any of us expected actually. It was very exciting!

I'll post some test footage shortly, after I experiment a little with some rough colour-correction and keying out the sky.

With a little bit of luck we'll tramp up the Tongariro Crossing this weekend... but the weather isn't looking too good just at the moment. Fingers crossed!