Autumn - a time for reflection perhaps?

Yesterday I took a long walk on a new walkway that follows the Hawea River from Albert Town to Lake Hawea, and I marvelled at the far-sightedness and investment of a Trust that created it from go to whoa, inc. a very substantial swing bridge...


Yesterday was also the day our New Zealand National Govt. unveiled plans to mine in our National Parks. Predetermined plans at that, it seems!

Unlike Lake Wanaka I find Lake Hawea has a real sense of rawness about it. It maybe autumn though, but we're getting a lot of spring [Oct.] like gales at present...


I note that many local Bed and Breakfast operations promote this long walk/ride overseas. So I truly wonder what is going on if our Govt. thinks it can earn more overseas dollars by destroying our landscape, than we'd get from tourism, which is our biggest earner, and has been for sometime...




Today on National Radio this whole mining thing got examined again - I recall the last time was in the last century, and it was discarded out-of-hand. Yet this time it's spooky - it's the predetermined approach of our present Govt. that does this to me. The focus on the National Radio, of course is Great Barrier Island, that jewel in the Hauraki Gulf, and the nearby Coramandel Peninsula area, both close to our largest city Auckland.

But down here in the south we have a larger jewel and maybe the Govt. hope it'll be overlooked if the hullabaloo is centred near Auckland!

Since there is a following on my blog here of people who enjoy a virtual journey, lets examine Stewart Island / Rakiura, coastline and landscape of our third-largest island of New Zealand.

From Oban, the only town on Stewart Island, to get to Port Pegasus, the southern most harbour, is several hours at 8 knots - two thirds of the trip being in the true Southern Ocean...


This is the shoreline on this long and exposed leg...


There are hazards like Black Rock accentuated by wickedly strong currents, right where the naive would sail, ...


The entrance to Pegasus - a tricky harbour to enter due to severe currents, but once inside there is enough to keep adventurer sailors like Arthur here, and his mates [myself, son and others] busy for a month...


But wait... there has been mining here too. The Tin Range, for example, is not called "The Tin Range" for nothing, but back then the technology was quaint, so there is not much left behind...


And maybe real pirates did use this "Pirates Cove". But today's pirates, if they come, will come in more than rubber boats...


Port Pegasus is a beguiling place, full of history [like Fiordland it was populated early and then abandoned], and is rather ominously a good harbour too...


Ashore it is a wild windswept place of great beauty - essentially wilderness that contains low scrub [wind affected/stunted] and low mountains like Gog and Magog...


On Magog we can see the even wilder west coast - a glimpse to the right...


My son Dougal on Magog, and over his right shoulder.. that is Gog...


Dougal surveys northern Port Pegasus from Magog...


Gog and Magog from Bald Cone which is further south again. Check out the ice sculptured landforms....


And even further south [sth. west actually], there are even more isolated mountains and valleys evident in this amazing wilderness...


Bald Cone...


So this is our jewel of the south - Stewart Island / Rakiura...


Further north in Paterson Inlet there is Ulva Island. An outstanding success in terms of a bird sanctuary. So much-so that thousands visit it by water taxi every "season" [tourism], and many far-sighted visionaries are mooting the whole of Stewart Island / Rakiura be turned into a predator free zone bird sanctuary. I believe this is a possible and an absolutely stunning goal. Sadly though it could be that those who would desecrate that which is a spiritual landscape, will be the predators!

Ulva Island weka...


Govt. eyes up estimated 7 billion

So dear local readers and overseas lovers of NZ, what do you think about mining our National Parks?

Nonlinear iteration or repetition with a slight difference each time

Nonlinear iteration or repetition with a slight difference each time is something I've been thinking of quite a bit recently. The cumulative effect is like steering a boat one degree off course, which is not much at all, yet days later finding you're thousands of miles off-course to the left or the right of your target.

My point here is that any slight change in a repetitious thought pattern can bring about major changes, and so if everything is connected to everything else, as it appears, we can bring change to any situation!

So rambling on: often I'm reminded that it all comes down to awareness. On this score last evening I took a gentle walk from Lake Wanaka down the Outlet Track beside the Clutha river, and found I could walk slightly faster than kayakers, so I hastened to a high spot above rapids and made some photos.

The camera was desperately trying to focus when I clicked the shutter and I found I'd captured a reality a little different to what I'd anticipated...


This is what I had in mind...


Both pictures are true and illustrate to myself at least that to make sense of the fact they are both pretty much of the same subject matter, we need a context that matches both.

So I walk through life of late wondering just where I can place a very small amount of energy in a way that draws events into a context of a higher order, like the first image. All events and situations have a critical point of balance too and once identified we can stop or start anything in our dynamic universe with very little effort, if we know the most effective place to direct our energy too.

We may have to look carefully to find, for example, how to bring plans to dam this river into a focus where people treasure nature, rather than attempting to spoil it in the name of progress and money. When we kill rivers we are indulging in violence against ourselves - if they die, so too will we simply through a lack of water quality [this already happening to thousands of kids world wide daily], not to mention the spiritual...


This living entity with it's feet in the river knows this also , but we simply don't have the context yet to understand what it knows and what we don't know. Our egos need a little dissolution for starters...

The big fellow - Mt Aspiring

One hundred years ago Mt Aspiring was climbed for the first time by Jack Clarke, Alec Graham and Major Bernard Head, and so over the weekend in Wanaka there was a celebration of this in the Lake Wanaka Center on Sat. evening.

I made this photo exactly a year ago while helping on a bird survey of the Matukituki river little realising that a local friend John whom I admired very much had just fallen off the south west ridge [top left]. On the celebration night as above his surviving companion Martin gave a very good presentation on Aspiring in the context of environmental art/photography, and to honour John. Hopefully it was a healing experience...


Most of the public see the big fellow from Glendhu Bay. That's him in the distance on the right...


Tele shot from Glendhu...


In winter from the Snow Farm...


Another good spot is from Rocky Top - a popular walk near Wanaka...


The evening started with extracts read out from Head's diary, then local farmer John gave a fascinating presentation on farming in the area - his family back 3 generations. Next there was a presentation on the history of the huts on the mountain, including historical footage of the transportation and building of Aspiring Hut. This interested me greatly as there were shots of people who mentored myself in
the mountains when I was a youngster. After an interval an old friend Geoff gave the keynote from the perspective of having climbed it well over 70 times guiding. Then having run out of puff I came home a bit early [but late] opting to miss the modern day interpretation of climbing [but there was an earlier brief narration from a guy who has skied [gulp] the route of the first ascent - the West Face]

All-in-all though local folk singer Martin stole the show, for me at least, with his poem he performed on the antics of keas on a hut roof.

Doing this post has shown me I've not really made many photos of this iconic mountain on my door step. Maybe that can be a goal!

The context of events in life

Whilst Oct. was quite benign, with just lower temps. than normal and a bit more cloud, right now Nov. is still misbehaving: there has been a wall of grey/white obscuring the mts. for a few days now, and recently a wind that never relents as it tore off little branches and leaves off the trees here. But at least the sun has been shining!

A rare calm period, during these late spring windy days on Lake Wanaka...


Last week I posted about the successes of the campaign to stop Meridian Energy [Project Hayes] building a wind farm on the Lammermoor Range in Central Otago, and as mentioned to Marg. who comments here, I find it wrong that we actually have to fight inappropriate ideas forced on us. As if reading my mind I then noted the Otago Daily Times had just published such an article called "Campaign took its toll on project opponents"

The basic problem with Meridian Energy's Project Hayes [and Contact Energy in the case of proposed dams on the Clutha River] is that their mandates [self imposed or otherwise?] are not aligned to support the full gamut of human needs. If they were these sort of institutions could benefit all aspects of our lives. At the moment they do not!

This all seems to come about by the limited capacity of either the individuals concerned flavouring the ethos of the organisation, or the organisation being of such a mind-set, that it/they only attract an energy [no pun intended] which is limited by the context of the inherited levels of awareness of the observers. Motives determine the goals and therefore the end result has little in it to benefit an energy situation that needs a solution. Or you could say the situation is poorly understood - the acquisition and need of energy by human beings goes way beyond electricity!

Therefore a low energy struggle ensues. Rather than "lifting the game" the institutions pull down the big picture ideals of people who could contribute so much, but become engaged in a drain of energy and resources such as reported in the above mentioned Otago Daily Times article.

The ODT also recently published the remarks of an elected counsellor who was criticising the positive and far-seeing results of the Environment Court. What was interesting to me were these two comments left by readers, who have presumably do have a "lifted game":

Submitted by RedTussock on Fri, 13/11/2009 - 7:49am.
Gerry whilst I enjoy your advocacy for common sense can I ask that you endeavour to do some research on what is happening elsewhere in the world. In the US a 345MW Concentrating Solar Power project cost $US200 million to build. It takes up no more land than a large vineyard, costs less, and does not blot the skyline with wind towers. CSP stations produce power during non sun light hours. The technology for new, cheaper, and better alternatives has advanced in the last few years to the point where the expense of wind power both monetary and geographically is hard to justify. The new alternatives are better.

Submitted by Ian Smith on Fri, 13/11/2009 - 11:41am.
Does anyone seriously consider that at the end of the economic life of these towers, (and it will come), the perpetrators will be summoned on-site to spend many millions of dollars restoring the landscape to its former pristine state? Of course not, it will become a graveyard of rusting hulks and a further monument, (as if one were needed), to mankind's greed and stupidity.

I therefore wonder at what seems to be a very limited view of the goals and solutions proposed by Meridian Energy, Contact Energy and the current New Zealand Govt!

The Blue Lakes of St. Bathans. A legacy left behind by the resource gathering of earlier generations. In this case a pretty and interesting slice of history, or should I say "sluice"...

Blast from the past favourites, and more on the idea of dams on the Clutha

It's been one of those weeks of reflection, and I've made no new landscape photos. Instead I'm settling into the moment after a few weeks of all sorts of varied upheavals: friends passing on, my son dealing with the astounding growth of mind, spirit and body associated with the teen years, and friends hitting the wall so-to-speak, on their journeys towards growth.

So since that's been the theme it seems fitting to delve into the past tonight and post and share some of my old time favourites.

Mt Aspiring probably taken from a flank of Roys Peak. That's Lake Wanaka's Glendhu Bay down on the left...


Mt Aspiring again - this time an unusual, more European Alps style of viewpoint, obtained from near the Albert Burn Saddle, Mt Aspiring National Park...


One of my most favourite of vehicles - a VW 1500 that I used for years, often like a Land Rover to capitalise on the rough roads on the early 1970s. Here photographed after a snowfall in the Danseys Pass area that links North Otago to Central Otago...


Naseby gold workings. A landscape photography dream in the 1960s, when it looked more like the surface of the moon, just before wilding pines turned it into the forest it is today. Naseby Forest as it is now known as, is a mecca for technical mountain biking, and is near the famous Central Otago Rail Trail...


The long wide and barren summit ridge of the nearby Pisa Range, host to the Snow Farm where I nordic ski...


Fence posts made from rocks on The Old Dunstan Road. A favourite photo I made back in the 1980s...


From near the Great Moss Swamp on The Old Dunstan Road, looking west on sunset right across most of Central Otago's block mountains...


And as mentioned in the blog subject, lastly some new links on the ill conceived idea to dam the Clutha River...

The fledgling Upper Clutha River Guardians website just went online... more>>

... and the Otago Daily Times website is sporting a poll, which will be well worth the time to fill in, as we know it's monitored by decision makers. There have been some very thoughtful posts opposing.. more>>

The magic of winter

We've had some stunning days lately as a high pressure system sits over us. Usually when this happens we get an inversion - a low layer of cloud that excludes the sun from shining on our Wanaka town. However for whatever reason we've had the stunning frosts that occur sans inversion, and glorious days of bright and welcome sunshine. That is until today.

However the escape is to drive up one of the ski area roads and since the Snow Farm nordic area opened officially yesterday I [officially] began my 2009 ski season yesterday. My forty third it seems.

What an inversion looks like from above...


Vicky and Eric were there - old buddies from my Mt Cook days. Vicky and I often ski together, so it was great to get back into the swing of things...


Vicky at the Bob Lee hut. It's not often we can sit in here and relax as it's exposed and at high enough altitude to catch whatever wind is about...


From the Bob Lee hut, looking towards Lake Wanaka, you look right across the Criffel Range. I've done a lot of wandering down there amongst New Zealand's highest altitude gold workings. It's a fascinating area overlooked by all and sundry...


Late today the inversion was still sitting over Lake Hawea...


This morning driving up to the Snow Farm I was keen to do some landscape photography of a particular shot I had in mind. This one I eventually made is looking across at Mt Cardrona [inc. ski area] and was not quite what I had in mind, but landscape photography is often like that...


This weeks recommended blog is by my good friend Geoff - on Sat. he was across the valley from the Snow Farm ski touring behind Cardrona Ski Area, and he made some nice photographs >>

That time of year - grab the sun when you see it!

No matter how I try to counteract it I seem to slow down this time of the year. And this year... maybe it's been worse due to the weather, for an early winter seems to have settled on this part of the world.

Yesterday was one of those days though: out-of-the box! So I made sure after gathering up my x/c ski gear and winterising my camper truck [chains easy to access, snow shovel stowed etc.] that I got my intake of vitamin D by going down to the nearby Lake Wanaka and simply sitting in the sun facing west near Beacon Point. I do admit however to making some landscape photos as the light became stunning and tangental.







In recent weeks I've posted about dangers to our rivers in this the South Island of New Zealand and particularly the Clutha [which begins in this neck of the woods right where the above photos were made]. There have been some interesting and positive articles lately in the local paper with regards to the unique Nevis Valley. The Otago Daily Times...

Tribunal: Richard Fowler (chairman), Carolyn Burns and Rauru Kirikiri.

Application: To amend existing water conservation order to prevent damming or diversion of Nevis River.

Players: New Zealand and Otago Fish and Game Councils want the changes, Pioneer Generation and TrustPower are among those in opposition.

Yesterday: Evidence was heard from John Douglas, Brian Patrick, fisheries scientist Martin Unwin, Prof Alan Mark, Janet Ledingham and Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand executive member David Barnes.

Quote of the day: "It's a time warp in there." Janet Ledingham, of Dunedin, talking about the unique characteristics of the Nevis valley and river.

Otago men part of film [Got to see this one - many of these fellows are environmental legends]

Popularity of fishing cited in Nevis [I'm amazed and gladdened to note that one in every eight guys in our area hold a fishing license]

Father and son kayakers make impassioned plea for Nevis valley [Gordy taught me some kayaking in another life and so it's great to see his son out there doing it, and also involved in the tribunal and submission process at age 12!]

Lastly this week's heads up is to Robb's blog: well written words on how fear dominates in our society

A New Zealand aerial landscape photography outing

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to fly to Christchurch and back to Wanaka and witness some stunning scenery.

Heading north this is the leading edge [to left of photo] of the weather system that played havoc with the Wellington area over the weekend...


Lenticular cloud of an unusual nature with Lake Tekapo in the background...


A flooded Rakaia river makes it's braided and muddy way to the east coast...

But wait there is more! Having got to Christchurch today I returned!

An unknown [to myself] mountain...


Many unknown peaks and peaklets - we have no shortage of these in New Zealand...


Mt Cook in the middle, Tasman on the right, and La Perouse on the left...


Looking SE along the nearly 7000 ft St Bathans Range - about 18 months ago I was fortunate enough to drive along this remote Central Otago mountain range with my cousin Michael in his 4wd...


Mt Aspiring as I got closer to home...


And again the St Bathans Range from just above Wanaka airport - a very familiar view which is seen from many Central Otago locations...