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 >>

More Clutha River wanderings

When the sun looked like dissipating the inversion cloud this morning I packed a lunch and Dougal and I headed off for a walk, heading yet again on further personal exploration of the Clutha River near home.

Looking west towards Black Peak and Treble Cone, while we walked in hope of the cloud letting the sun shine on us...


Further downstream past Reko's Point, and looking south to the end of the Pisa and Criffel Ranges...


It had been bothering me - just who was Reko? I knew the name and then I recalled he was the guide of Surveyor J.T. Thomson:

He persuaded Reko of Tuturau to guide him from Otago to Canterbury by an inland route. In September 1853, he, Reko and another Maori companion set off up the Mataura and the Nokomai valleys and over the hills to the Nevis and Kawarau valleys. They crossed the Kawarau River on the natural rock bridge and went downriver to the flats above Cromwell. They made their way to Wanaka and Hawea, before Chalmers, who was exhausted, gave up any idea of going further, and the group returned by raft down the Clutha River (McClymont 1959: 70). More on the New Zealand Dept of Conservation website

Thomson was an accomplished artist and I found a picture he made of a spooky crossing of the Mataura River with Reko on the teara.govt.nz web site

As we walked I asked Dougal to consider that there are people that want to dam this amazing river and drown the landscape. I think he had trouble grasping this and I guess age 16 has not given him enough time yet to ponder the losses I've seen...


I've paddled this river in a past life, camping on the way and that was adventure enough. It must have been something else for Reko, Thomson and Chalmers to build their own raft and head off, bobbing along at speed as the craft became water-logged, and not have much of a clue as to what lay ahead. On many stretches of the river it's really hard to get into the edge as boil ups keeping pushing upwards denying access...


Locally so many of us have concerns about ill conceived ideas to mess up this planet, rivers and all that we live on - and everyone is a local relevant to where they live, so in a wider and more global context take some time please to check out the movie "home"on youtube by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. It has beautiful imagery of our mother earth and commentary of our evolution into where we have brought our planet to today. It's free on the web for a few more days [and is a 1.4 Gb download so it is not a short one].

Last week I found some stellar GPS software for my iPhone for about $NZ7 so we tried it out alongside my old GPS and found it remarkably good - nothing like a good day to play with new toys!

Dougal thought it was funny that the map is courtesy of the US Navy - us being inland and all that. This screen shot is of Reko's Point - I wonder if this is where they built the raft, as it's too close to Lake Wanaka to be the first night's camping spot. The green "init" maker is a way-point the phone generates each time it's turned on...


And this week's head's up is to cousin Deirdre's Tininn Lodge site where she has posted photos of her grand daughter Aleisha doing some part time modeling.

Photography for a Wanaka art gallery and Search and Rescue training.

I've was busy last week doing web sites and one required a few fine art shots downtown in Wanaka for Art Upstairs, and following last week's theme I had some more Wanaka Search and Rescue training one evening.

At the gallery it got a bit boring just shooting pictures on walls, so I captured a desired look and feel by examining what was there that could be utilised to good effect in the foreground...


As most Wanaka Search and Rescue operations use helicopters and the nature of the New Zealand terrain is mountainous, our training one evening last week was all about getting people and baggage in and out of helicopters on sloping terrain. Smoothness is required when getting in and out so as to not unbalance the machine abruptly, knowing how the door and luggage pod latches work, and obviously walking away uphill is not good for the head! These may seem simple things to master, but not when you're surrounded by so much on-going noise - all accompanied by significant air blasting as the machine arrives and departs.

Although the front of the skids are on the ground, this machine on the lower slopes of Treble Cone, is still flying in this photo. What pilots like to see in this situation, is no one rushing about as they embark and alight, but moving quietly within the pilot's field of vison...


I had planned on some tramping and fulfilling a self imposed landscape photography assignment this weekend, but the weather has not cooperated.