I hate to miss a moment when I’m in a new place so even though we had a sumptuous bed at Hotel Montreal – the fact that we still had the rental car until 10 and the promise of light clouds had me setting my alarm at 6.40am on Sunday. Sunrise in the east so that was half the decision. I looked on a map and picked out New Brighton Pier and I was off.
A quick google of sunrise at New Brighton Pier shows a plethora of sunrise pictures. And sure enough when I arrived on Sunday morning there were no less than 10 photographers lined up on the beach for what was a truly spectacular sunrise.
Far from feeling daunted – I loved seeing everyone else there. That’s part of the challenge, part of the sense of community. Everyone sees it a little bit differently, sets their camera up a little differently, frames the shot differently or sees it from a different angle. I love seeing what everyone else sees and fortunately one of the photographers down at the beach that morning actually shared his with me over on our Facebook page. How awesome is that! And what a crazy small world.
I didn’t have my tripod with me but I made to with using the nice broad railings and a few rocks (you can hear about my tips for creating a makeshift tripod over here).
The other important thing is to not wander off after the sun has risen!
There’s still so much to explore. I walked out to the end of the Pier and it was great to see it so much in use! There were people fishing, couples walking and of course people taking photos.
It’s a truly massive pier – 300 metres long. And is the second pier on New Brighton after the first one (originally built in 1894) was demolished in 1965. It took locals 30 years of campaigning to get a new pier built. When I visited in June 2018, it had been open for less than a month after being closed for repairs for 16 months. So it has definitely had its share of trials and tribulations.
Along the beach there were a whole raft of cafes but alas 10am was calling and the rental car had to be returned…
