Blossom blog

A very visual post this week as I've been out there sampling the delights of spring, and making landscape photos with my good friend Roger, and helping out again on the annual Mountain to Mountain multi sport race [ski down Treble Cone and then mt bike, kayak, run, and road bike to Wanaka and Cardrona before finishing with a mt bike up to the Snow Park]. Along the way a theme seems to have been some bird life happy to pose for me too.

From my deck...


Mountain to Mountain competitors line up their kayaks...


Mountain to Mountain competitors set off down the kayaking section on the Matukituki river...


South Island pied Oystercatcher / torea on the Matukituki river...


Wanaka Station Park blossom...


Roger trying out his new camera...


One of many magnificent redwoods at Wanaka Station Park...


Lake Wanaka...


The most photographed tree in Lake Wanaka hosting a bunch of shags - actually the Little Shag / koau, the smallest of New Zealand's cormorants, with a number of different colour forms. This one black body plumage with white feathers on the face and throat...


Mallard ducks [introduced into NZ during the 1860s] feeding nearby...




A local church...


Lastly good reading on a fascinating subject of The Last Megalithic Culture just spotted on Bob McKerrow's blog.

Thanks Bob :)

Moon struck on the Pisa and all downhill at Treble Cone

In this week ending the planets aligned for myself: Over the years I've skied under the stars lots at the Snow Farm and learnt to wonder not so much at the sparkle of them, but what lies between. But on Wed. the weather, snow conditions, work load [less is good] and the near full moon came into sync.

I was casting a shadow to my right on the way back and on my left the moonlit snow was a sort of orangy colour - not quite pinkish, not quite mauvish, but more a shade that reminded me of Aust. bushfire smoke with the sun shining through.

It was a slow trip back - I kept stopping to marvel at the scene, and the beauty of it was that conditions were so good there was no hurry. I certainly did not need my headlight

Moonrise over the Pisa...


Just a little while before the moonrise, I made this landscape photo in quite a desperate hurry in an attempt to catch the pink glow...


And today, just to keep life varied I took my son to ski Treble Cone. He's been a bit down-in-the-dumps of late so the idea was get some excitement and sunshine in his life. I used to do huge mileage there before he was born, and indeed even worked there a couple of winters on avalanche safety work, that was until I fell under the beguiling spell of Nordic skiing.

By the time I'd done two runs I just had to take him to the best viewpoint and make a photo. Here we see the Matukituki valley to the right, and Mt Aspiring hosting a cloud cap on the left and far away...


Riding the six seater chair...


I did enjoy the skiing btw. Conditions were perfect and we had a great time. I even met a few old time Treble Cone friends. They don't tend to understand why I switched, but I can live with that!

Fellow blogger friend Robb has just posted a very good write up of a recent Ruahines's winter tramp, and worthy of note is the top photo... more >>

The Clutha River - dam plans threaten the river and plans for a park and trail

Often we take what is on our back door-step for granted and I'm as guilty of this as anyone. One of the major sources of the 338km long Clutha is only several minutes away from my door, and just lately with insidious requests locally from Contact Energy for opinions on 30 yr. old plans to build 4 dams I've been jolted so much my rose tinted spectacles have been shaken off!

The view looking west last Sunday from the Lake Wanaka outlet, where The Clutha begins in our neck-of-the-woods...


I'm also aware the Clutha Mata-Au River Parkway Group is working to create NZ's largest river parkway along the entire 338km long Clutha Mata-Au corridor, including a river-length Clutha River Trail. Given the success of the Central Otago Rail Trail we're already pointing out the benefits that could come from these plans, that would bring thousands of visitors per year to enjoy something that is truly unique and awesome.

The Clutha very quickly develops a distinct character a Km downstream...


Thinking this through along with the recent successful dark avatar protest on twitter and other social networks to draw attention to an ill-conceived NZ Govt legislation with regards to copyright on the web it's occurred to me we don't have to take on this fight alone. With blogs etc. we can draw attention to these outdated plans on an international scale.

And this character has seasonal flavours...


Three of our largest lakes, Wakatipu [the well known alpine resort town of Queenstown is on it's shore], and my [home] Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea spawn this amazing waterway renown for it's water colour, history and scenic route to the sea among other things.

And it's always so dynamic - alive to it's journey to the sea and at peace with it's path so-much-so it flows with astounding speed and purity...


Through an ever changing landscape...


All of this landscape inc. Mt Aspiring in the distance feeds the Clutha...


Along the way it picks up side streams...


It's embarrassing to me as a New Zealander to say that if we need more power that we should first conserve what we have: it must be too cheap, our cost for it, as we all waste it, especially businesses, and how we fail to build and design efficient housing that lies to the sun is nothing short of disgraceful. But wait, there is more: we also let large corporations play with pricing and supply, not to mention our Govt...

I often wonder why we allow power from Fiordland's Lake Manapouri to be sold to the Comalco Aluminum Smelter at Bluff for an undisclosed sum. From this I assume it's sold very cheaply, so why don't we claim back our energy and use it for ourselves? I think we'd make more from it!

We need to get away from the concept of "owning" water and land - we are only the caretakers!

If you wish to pass on your views to Contact Energy this email address was published recently in one of our local newspapers: cluthahydro@contactenergy.co.nz

They also run a forum [pity it's moderated - there is nothing transparent in this as they can choose to not publish opposition!]

And on their site there is a form for email

Lastly while I can't provide heaps of great New Zealand landscape photography of the route the Clutha takes to the sea, I here include a selection of some of the sources. The Shotover complete with troublesome "wilding" larches...


The Wilken and Makarora river valleys...


Matukituki River and Shotover Saddle in Mount Aspiring National Park...


The Matukituki entering Lake Wanaka near Glendhu Bay...


Site head's up for this week: If you'd like to know more of the nature of the Clutha, Pioneer Rafting have a flavoursome web site

An interesting start to the New Year what with some varied outdoor activities

New Years day started for me watching fireworks down on Lake Wanaka's lake shore at midnight. I've always found Eely Point a good vantage point as it's not over-run by people. Before the day was out though I was deep in the heart of our Southern Alps on a Search and Rescue mission: an Aucklander of Uzbekistan descent was tramping alone from the Aspiring Hut to the Dart Hut over the Cascade Saddle, a tough alpine tramping route near Mount Aspiring, and not turned up at Dart Hut well over the other side.

A few light moments shared in the helicopter over the Matukituki river before arriving at the saddle...


I was far too busy after landing to photograph and admire the amazingly tough environment of Cascade Saddle and Dart Glacier we'd just been transported into as if by magic at over 1700 meters, until waiting to be picked up again in failing visibility with snow flakes. It was good to be "out-of-there" a few minutes later knowing darkness and a "weather bomb" were arriving...

Jan. 2nd as anticipated was a shocker for weather, and so no searching occurred. The next day I'd committed to helping with the half marathon "Souther Muster" being held at the Snow Farm. At 1500m we did get some left-over snowflakes from the big storm, but it was a lovely day, be it cool with the freezing level at about 1600m.

My camper beside Meadow Warming hut where we ran a drink station for the runners and bikers for the morning...




Runners calling in for drinks, bananas or jelly beans...


After the job was over there was time for a 3 hour walk and some serious landscape photography of the typical New Zealand high-country variety...






As of finishing this my weekly dispatch, the weather remains unsuitable for further searching for the tramper. It may be days before an outcome is achieved which will be hard for the search management team and the victim's family members.

PS just as I posted this the ph. rang and I find myself getting ready for another flight to Cascade Saddle [perhaps!]. Watch this space.

A thought provoking week of bird survey work and another mountain accident

After waiting for good settled weather for almost a month, finally mid last week I was off on a two day braided riverbed bird survey as a volunteer for DOC. This is an annual event I really look forward too and this year the river was the Matukituki that drains all the eastern slopes of Mt Aspiring.

A handful of us spread out across the braids and then walked downstream for about 30 Kms recording every bird we saw ahead of us. It's a physically demanding job, peppered with the need to cross and re-cross many of the branches and sometimes even the main flow, deal with the relentless reflected heat from the riverbed, very nasty quicksand [actually gravel over glacial silt], and any wind that is about.

Because we were a month late our survey coincided more with the juvenile stage of the large and prolific [Southern Hemisphere] Black Back Gull. This species seems to be on the increase and this is probably to the detriment of the increasingly rare Black Fronted Tern. Our course took us through several of the gull colonies and so we saw some chics...


These riverbeds are very raw, but they also have amazing landscape perspectives - we had this view of Mt Avalanche [centre] and Mt Aspiring [behind on the right] over our shoulders for two days. Little did I realise though, as I gazed often indulging my passion for panorama landscape photography, that a tragedy was unfolding: two of my client friends were on the classic South West Ridge, and one of them fell to his death on Thurs. The top of the ridge can be seen here in profile just to the left of Aspiring's summit...


The NZ Herald has the nicest article honouring John - one of the best "top drawer" people I've ever met. My sympathies go out to Meg and his family.

This is myself in full kit on the right complete with sun hat, binos, clipboard and a ski pole [to help with river crossings]. We also carry radios so we can check any duplication of sightings as we travel...


Black Back Gull chics in conference with attendant parents overhead [not seen here] making quite a racket [it's best to not look up!]...


On this survey we noted quite a delightful increase in Banded Dotterels. Although nesting was over for this spring, I took this photo of a protective parent last year...


Also early last week, before the survey, there was lots of bad weather with accompanying high rainfall which filled Lake Wanaka to the brim, and also made our survey river crossings much more difficult. It would also have swept away many chics and nests, and this has given me much to think about re. the dynamic nature of survival! However we noted decreases and increases, another of the latter being the ethereal and beautiful Pied Stilt [I've yet to capture on the camera]