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 last in the virtual 4wd series

As a few of my treasured commenters have noted my posts of late have been a virtual journey, so I thought I may as well finish the pictorial story of what has now amounted to 5 days days of 4wd travel incorporating two of Central Otago's block mountain ranges - the Dunstans [Leaning Rock] and The Pisa Range.



2nd cousin Paul and his family...


I had quite a hard time resisting making photos of these formations just below Leaning Rock...


While I made my photos, acquaintance of a few trips like this, Peter, has the front wheel of his 50 yr. old Land Rover realigned. This amazing vehicle sporting number plates from many lands, has been toured in the Arctic Circle and driven to NZ through places like India and Africa. If as I suspect there is an emotional bond, this is something I can relate too, and I could forgive the need for constant maintenance on the journeys...


Most of the 45 [approx.] 4wd vehicles stopped in Thomsons Gorge to look at a restored stamper battery...


The whole day out was led by the owner of Northburn Station Tom Pinckney, and there was a radio transmitter put in his vehicle so he could give us a running commentary all day by tuning in our vehicle radios - it's a brilliant idea! Although Mike and myself and others had recc'd the trip a few weeks previous though, the last section we left up to him, and it turned out to be quite a surprise for myself at least, the terrain becoming very tight, steep and technical...


My job on this day was to stay several vehicles back from Tom the leader, so here we wait and watch with some concern the tail-enders tackle the beginning of the "tight, steep and technical"...


The corner on the left was about as tight and as steep as it's possible to get around - I took three goes...


Tom watches. It must have been a bit nerve wracking - a lot of the drivers may have been perceived as "townies", but many have been doing these trips for 25 years with my cousin. They've perhaps realised that tough sidewall tires and experience, along with a quiet considered approach, goes much further than bull bar and winch festooned "looking the part' macho mentality...


This first day of the weekend ended at the Northburn Winery's "The Shed" for drinks and nibbles and wine tastings. If everyone was as dusty, and thirsty as myself then they may have received a little recompense for the amazing adventure Tom gave us.

Sunday morning dawned again fine and found us on the eastern face of the Pisa Range [photo credit Kim C.] ...


Having gained the tops near Mt Pisa, we stopped so I could show Kim this nice little tarn she photographed...


Toileting has always been a problem on these fund-raisers in the wide open Central Otago landscape, but was solved very elegantly a few years back by realising, no matter what, the sloshing about somehow is contained by the design of these toilets...


At the lower altitude of the southern Pisa Range one of the punters does a sharp turn from one track to another [photo credit Kim C.] ...


Actually we directed and watched the whole wagon train make the turn...


Here Mike and the organisers say a big "thanks to the 90 odd souls, that partake'd of the adventure, while Kim and myself, now turned tail enders, watched from a distance, noting that, if we wished, we could choose to see the line as an organism...


This had to be done relatively high up because when we'd get down to the Kawarau Gorge in 30 mins. there would no room for an assembly point near the very busy main road...


And for those interested the group had about 3 punctures, and one modern Land Rover Disco had to be abandoned during an ascent due to over heating, and the classic well travelled Land Rover broke a centre bolt of the front leaf spring assembly. but completed the whole two days after having it simply clamped tightly. It also had to have a stop while a heater hoses was tightened. On the last day, door-to-door, Kim and I put in 10 hours driving - less an hour each for morning tea and lunch, and only used a third of tank of fuel despite going up to 1900 metres! It goes to show how much fuel we use [waste] on the road simply pushing air at high speed!