Otago Rail Trail
And another link.
And another link.
Taxi!
Here is my taxi on Lake Te Anau. It dropped me off at a deserted beach, at a point near the Kepler Track. (I was taking a shortcut).
Te Anau is the second biggest lake in New Zealand, after Taupo. The forest here is part of the Fiordland National Park.
It is near this lake that the previously thought to be extinct Takahe was discovered.
Southland Travels
Last week we had a wind blowing through Southland that was stronger than any wind known for decades, 150 kilometres per hour. Burwell House where I live, is 3 bricks thick, yet it quivered in the gusts but I was most worried about the roof. I feared that it might peel off.
I’m also concerned about my roof in New Plymouth because it is beginning to rot and leaks are appearing, one of them in my bedroom, one of them in my kitchen, and the other, worst of all, in my studio. It will be about $20,000 to replace.
The previous week here, at 1.40 a.m. I was woken by a big quake. The weights in the sash windows were rocking against their casings, and like pendula their dull strike continued for some time after the earth ceased its travel.
This photo is how the waves were at the bottom left of the South Island, on the afternoon after the wind. Nigel Brown lives near here at Cosy Nook. Riverton is nearby.
Tulip Toyland
On Thursday night I stayed in a house nestled in several acres of steep and interestingly planted land near St Bathans, in Central Otago.
While mountains were everywhere, and a compulsion to photograph them is almost inevitable, the sight of these assorted tulips dotted around, drew me in like a magnet. I photographed them in the morning, and I photographed them in the evening. Picture is not fully there yet perhaps but if you click on the image to magnify it, it makes the toyland quality that I was drawn into, more clearly visible. It could benefit by being larger.
Central Otago
Sorry to have been out of touch for the last few days but I have been in Central Otago and way out of range of a computer connection. No mobile connection either.
Completely different to any other part of New Zealand, some of it is arid and rocky, cold in winter and hot in summer. Westerns could easily be filmed there.
Gold mining was one of the main activities and here is a view of some miners huts that have been preserved. I’m always intrigued by subjects that somehow get lost in the background. At Cape Foulwind some years ago from a high vantage point I tried to photograph seals lying on rocks. They were remarkably well disguised and it took several minutes to identify just how many there were there.
Tulips
I’m seeing a lot of tulips this spring. Being, by New Zealand standards, quite cold, Southland is able to grow them in quantities economically not possible in other parts of the country.
Tulips have been coming out into flower over the last 3 weeks or so, so I’ve plenty of opportunity to see different varieties. The more complex they are the more I’m beginning to like them. Previously, the opposite was true.
