A celebration of our wild New Zealand landscape and National Parks - and a "heads up"

Quentin Smith of Wanaka has recently formed a FaceBook group: Hands off Mt Aspiring NP and a few days ago membership stood at 5000, and it's now well over 6000!

... which relates to the noises our new, seemingly unenlightened and uninspired, New Zealand Government are making to initiate mining investigations in our National Parks. Not only my local Mt Aspiring National Park I might add!

While they say it's only a stock-take even that is a transgression and impossible to do without major disturbances and destruction of our heritage put aside for all coming generations.

Having got this off my chest [link below] I'm here sharing some of my favourite landscape photos I've made of our wild New Zealand landscape.

This is Mt Brewster - somewhat in the middle of the area of Mt Aspiring National Park our National Government has it's beady eyes on [and in bed with which multi national corporation that historically is always in the background taking profits when it comes to mining resources in any country?]...


Marks Flat under Mt Hooker - a huge tract of land designated at Conservation Estate in South Westland. Should it be part of the World Heritage Site in this area [Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand]?


You can "mine" great powder on the slopes of Mt Cook in Mount Cook National Park...


Alma hut in Westland National Park, with Franz Josef neve behind...


Mt Aspiring from Cascade Saddle


Lake Hankinson in Fiordland National Park [not far from the Milford Track]...


Looking down one of the significant glaciers in Westland National Park


There is a FaceBook generated link here, to view, or I suggest join the group: Hands off Mt Aspiring NP.

Or failing above then click on Groups in your FaceBook account and type in "Hands off Mt Aspiring NP"

And on a related matter this week I found out that New Zealand has 56,000 Kms of public roads that are not public, and our current New Zealand Government, and the preceding one it seems, have apparently been doing their best to sweep these "paper roads" under the carpet by use of cunning legal moves to give the land to those [many of whom have already fenced them off], in exchange for easements. The former offer us, the recreational users and owners unfettered access, the latter, easements, do absolutely nothing for us - only for self serving interests of those who've squatted on our rights.

The theme of past follies continues

For my last two posts I've visited the past - first a family internment and then about the local celebration of the first ascent of Mt Aspiring last weekend. Well the trend continues: this week gone by I attended our annual Wanaka Search and Rescue helicopter training. While it's tempted me to write about adventures around helicopters and rescues that went well or not-so-well, a friend has recently lent me his new colour slide scanner so I've gone intensely for scanning hundreds of my landscape photography collection which goes back 40 years or more. It can do about 40 an hour, which is a lot better than my one at 8/hr. So dear readers, I've been so delighted with the results I've decided to share some of my favourite images from what seems like a past life:

Bluffs and rainbow on Mt Hooker taken from Marks Flat in South Westland. In fact I spent a week looking at this hillside while living under a nice rock riding out a nor wester once. Rocks are very peaceful things to live under as soon as I get over thinking about earthquakes, but none-the-less it was really nice to see this little reminder of sunshine...


Market gardens in North Otago...


Mt Hooker - waterfall...


Bush with light-shafts in seaward Kaikouras...


Sunset on an Otago beach...


And to finish on something not 30 years old, the new Squirrel coming in carefully for our recent Search and Rescue practice...


Not a good situation in which to contemplate walking uphill away from the helicopter!