Jim Eagles: Capturing the Great Southern Land

I think the reason Kiwis enjoy travelling to Australia so much is that it is so similar and yet so different from home. Of course, the fact that it is our closest neighbour and is relatively cheap to visit is a big reason for more than half our overseas trips being across the Tasman.

But there is also something comforting about going to a foreign country where they speak the same language, drive on the same side of the road, use a similar currency and eat the same food.

Yet, at the same time, Australia can also be an exciting place to visit because its vast empty deserts, ancient Aboriginal culture, unique wildlife, vast size and primordial landscapes are so different from anything we can see at home.

Sure, Australian cities like Sydney and Melbourne are enjoyable to visit, mainly because they give you a taste of what Auckland might be like in a decade or two, with more people but better infrastructure, a wider choice of great food and wine, superb concerts and art galleries and recreational facilities we can only dream of.

But for me the real fascination lies in the vistas that are utterly different from our own small, green, mountainous country: the endless red desert plains broken only by the occasional strangely shaped tree or peculiar hopping animal; the amazing land shapes produced by a billion years of weathering and a billion busy termites; the vast tropical swamps filled with terrifying crocodiles and beautiful flowers.

If you haven't seen that side of Australia - or even if you have - I suggest you visit the Australia Through the National Geographic Lens exhibition, which opened yesterday in the foyer of the Aotea Centre.

On display are 47 pictures by one of the world's great photographers, Sam Abell, an American who for the past 40 years has been a photographer-in-residence for National Geographic.

Abell is most famous for his portrayals of Australia, a place he regards as the focal point of his art. "Every photographer who has worked at National Geographic for the better part of their career looks for a place they can call their own, photographically and spiritually," he explains.

"That place for me is Australia, particularly the remote northern part of the continent.

"I found there a landscape and a people that profoundly affected my photography and me."