David Enzel

Auckland’s skyline seen from Maungawhau (Mount Eden), one of the city’s most prominent volcanic cones.

Maungawhau rises approximately 196 meters (643 feet) above sea level and is the highest natural point on the Auckland isthmus. It is part of the Auckland Volcanic Field, a collection of more than 50 volcanic cones formed over the past 200,000 years. The summit crater, roughly 50 meters deep, remains clearly visible and is considered sacred to Māori.

Long before European settlement, Maungawhau was the site of a fortified Māori pā (village). Terraces carved into the slopes for housing and food storage are still visible today, marking it as an important ancestral and defensive site. The name Maungawhau translates roughly as “mountain of the whau tree.”

From its summit, one can see much of Tāmaki Makaurau (the Māori name for Auckland), including the Waitematā Harbour to the north, the Manukau Harbour to the south, and the modern skyline anchored by the Sky Tower. The view reveals Auckland’s geography clearly: a city built across narrow land between two harbours, shaped by volcanic origins and maritime access.

Today, Maungawhau remains both a public park and a culturally significant site, offering one of the most comprehensive vantage points over New Zealand’s largest city.

As the sun slipped behind the Remarkables, the water of Lake Wakatipu settled into evening calm. Boats rested at the pier, mountains fell into silhouette, and the last light lingered quietly over Queenstown—less spectacle, more pause.

Milford Sound / Piopiotahi lies on the southwest coast of New Zealand’s South Island within Fiordland National Park. A fiord carved by glaciers during the last ice age and later flooded by the Tasman Sea, it is defined as much by weather as by geology. Low cloud, heavy rain, and brief breaks in light shape how the landscape is seen—and often how little of it is revealed. Here, a tour vessel moves through deep water beneath steep, forested walls, offering a sense of scale within a place that resists clarity.

Alpenglow settles on Aoraki / Mount Cook at sunset, seen from the Hermitage Hotel in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park. Rising to 3,724 meters (12,218 feet), Aoraki is the highest mountain in New Zealand. As the sun drops, warm light briefly catches the upper snowfields while the lower slopes fall into deep blue shadow—a quiet, fleeting moment that emphasizes the mountain’s scale, structure, and stillness.

Melbourne, Australia

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It’s not important to take the perfect picture. It’s about keeping the mood, the energy, the memory of what’s happening right now.

• Nina Davidson

Toulouse: Light, Stone, and the Quiet Confidence of a Great City

Warm light, quiet streets, rose-colored stone — and a feeling of grace everywhere.

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