Sunrise on Roys Peak

My wife and I had completed the Milford and Routeburn Tracks in New Zealand for our 25th wedding anniversary. One of our favourite towns in NZ is Wanaka, about an hour from Queenstown. Besides “the Wanaka Tree” world famous photo, another very popular hike and photo opportunity is Roys Peak. We woke up early and started the 8km ascent before 4am. This is a relentless gradient consisting of multiple switchbacks. We made it to the popular photo spot and there were already a group of people taking the well known photo at the end of a ridge. We decided to push on to make the sunrise and were rewarded with a similar peak a bit further up. We took a few photos at that spot and continued on. Nearing the top the morning blue hour had started and we had to walk around behind the mountain to continue to the peak. I had only brought 2 video cameras and my iPhone 15 Pro Max for photos. Just before the final climb, we rounded a bend and stopped and to view this beautiful sight. I shot the photo in ProRAW knowing that I would have plenty of data to play with in post processing. Unfortunately we missed the sunrise by a couple of minutes but I have zero regrets after capturing this beautiful photo with so many soft pastel colours.
Philip Muller Queensland Australia
Photo taken on Roys Peak in Wanaka New Zealand