Mt Taranaki as seen from Wellington
It was just as the sun was going down, the sky lit up with pinks and yellows, that Lilia Alexander stood on top of Wrights Hill with her camera.
Mt Taranaki, its hulking form a silhouette against the sunset sky, was visible to the naked eye all the way from Karori, Wellington, 330 kilometres away.
Alexander had driven up the hill with another goal in mind.
There was snow on the hills beyond Wellington, and she wanted to capture the sight on camera. There was a group of photographers already there, and Alexander chatted with them about her new telephoto lens.
It wasn’t until a couple walked by, and asked if she’d seen the view on the other side of the hill, that Alexander noticed the mountain in the distance.
The mountain is a four-anda-half hour drive from Wellington, and the clear, crisp night and vibrant sky meant a rare opportunity to see it from the capital.
‘‘It took me a couple of minutes to even understand how we could see it,’’ she said.
It was her first time using the telephoto lens, and she was only starting to get into landscape photography, usually focusing on travel photography and videos.
Wellington-born, and based in Whitby, Alexander runs the Wellington – LIVE Facebook page.
She’d since had messages from people wanting a copy of the photo, and the post on Facebook had received more than 11,000 likes since she posted it on Wednesday evening.
On Thursday, MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo
Makgabutlane said conditions needed to be just right for the mountain to be visible from Wellington.
A cold front had moved through, bringing a lot of dry air and the wind had died down, making the atmosphere less turbulent.
‘‘You see the same situation when stargazing,’’ she said.
The southerly that came through cleared any pollution, increasing visibility.
That same cold front was to thank for the fresh layer of snow on the Tararua Range that Alexander was chasing that evening.