Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

I wasn't sure what it all was, but its only what someone said when I got back to queenstown. If it wasn' due to the smoke or whatever from the fires, then i have no idea what it was from (i know this is a VERY delayed reply, sorry!)

I'm not sure. I think the haze, combined with a sunset would have caused this effect in NZ. You certainly wouldn't see the flames though, but that's not what aimsuk was claiming either.

I was 10km from the fires and although it really did feel / look like doomsday, the sky was not orange. It was black. It was black and all the trees looked white with this really eerie light shining on them. It really did feel like the end of world had come upon us.

I don't doubt that you could see the smoke. smoke can travel pretty high up. but to see the flames and for them to have this kind of effect on a city that is like 1300 miles away. haha if the fires made queenstown this yellow then sydney would've melted.

Ok, at first this made me laugh as well. But I googled a little and found this quote:
"Parts of Victoria are resembling a war zone and the harsh black brown smoke and gigantic flames can incredibly be seen as far away as New Zealand; 1,000 miles away".

I don't mean to sound mean or anything but there is no way the fires are what made the sky in NZ yellow. who ever told you that was just taking the piss. OZ is just too far away

i can assure you that no filter or image editing was done to this photo, it was straight off my camera. I didnt know at the time why the sky was such a strange colour, but then was told when I got back to my hostel in Queenstown

Yes, the fires are out now. End of February there were some good rains. Then the problem moved towards erosion and ash washing into nearby creeks, etc.

Amazing the effect this had from such a distance. I did think there was a filter being used in this shot.

haha! too soon! TOO SOON! have they even put those fires out yet?