Taken with my kite aerial photography rig, this photo is looking directly down onto the oldest part of the oldest cemetery in town. The Wakapuaka Cemetery is no longer available for burials. There is a small area by the front gates for commerative plaques for departed who have been cremated recently. The cemetery is on a hill with some of the best views of Nelson City. At the top are the graves of some of Nelson's earliest settlers. Here the graves seem to be spaciously arranged in family groups and even some on their own. It's not until seen from the air that the unmarked graves become apparent. The rows of graves in this photograph are completed by tell-tale depressions in perfect formation; the graves of the unnamed and forgotten. 
This was one of the most challenging KAP locations I've tried to date. There are lots of mature trees and the hill is quite steep. And of course, there are lots of graves and tombstones to avoid. The wind does strange things on the peak of a hill like this one. I had almost 1000 feet of line out before the kite was stable enough to attach the camera rig. A strange thing happened when I did attempt to send the camera up. As I was attaching the rig to the kite line, concentrating on the fiddly little clips and not really watching the kite, I noticed the line, which was at about 45 degrees was suddenly going straight up. I looked up to see my 16 square foot sutton flowform kite, with two fuzzy tails on, fly straight over top of me, as smooth as you please, and settle into a nice NW breeze. Literally 30 seconds earlier I was about to launch my camera into a SW breeze, and now with the same kite still in the air, it was NW and as smooth and strong as if it had been blowing in that direction all day. 
6:10:34 PM 
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