A little retro photography

I'm not feeling much like typing lots of words currently. So am letting the pictures speak.

Below are some of my favourites from a by-gone era in my life - I scanned all but one a few minutes ago. Part of the on-going cataloging of lots of colour slides made on Practica, Pentax and Rollie gear. Film is so different to the current digital!

Moon rise over Oamaru - June 1973


Winter in the Ahuriri valley - the 70s...


Nor West storm with gale force winds Hopkins Valley - Nov. 1974


An evening on Mt Heim, Ahuriri Valley - Dec. 1975...


Awakino Ski Field, North Otago - the 70s...


Lastly not so retro, yet... done last night using pinhole techniques with my iPhone...

Lengthening shadows and the first winter snows

It seems to me to have been a short autumn. All-the-more-so as after deciding on Sat. afternoon stroll at the nearby Snow Farm on the Pisa Range, I found there was a bit more snow around than I'd anticipated. It was quite a bonus really as along with the long shadows of the day, the presence of the white stuff adds light and contrast to an already stunning landscape.

A rare self portrait...


Meadow Hut in the upper reaches of the Roaring Meg...


I quite liked the two eyes in this rock...


The upper reaches of the Roaring Meg - Snow Farm Lodge water supply pump on the left...

Shades of autumn in Wanaka and Central Otago

For those who enjoyed last week's post on Ralph Warburton, then I've since added several or more extra photos from his collection ...here >>

Queen's Birthday long weekend

So what did you do for our long NZ holiday weekend?

For me every holiday break usually elicits a few memories of trips in our mountains. With the short daylight hours this time of year and accompanying biting cold some memories are quite vivid:

A long ways up the Dobson Valley which runs into Lake Ohau. Using my old truck was always wonderful as it got us to some great spots you'd never really want to walk in to, but keeping it alive in such cold was always a challenge, e.g. in and out of water meant the brake shoes would freeze onto the drums when stopped for awhile. This old hut was burnt down not long afterwards when a Twizel resident decided to visit and clean his motor-bike fuel tank with the aid of a candle! ...


In the mid 70s a group of us decided we wanted to become ski mountaineers. There were no teachers in New Zealand in those days except for the mountains. So making sure all our experiences would be small ones we cut our cloth accordingly and did easy summer trips in winter. Many a Queen's Birthday long weekend we'd carry our skis up to the old [actually second, now replaced by a huge third] Muellar Hut above The Hermitage. It'd always take us over six hours and every trip was wild, what with storms, darkness, cornices, ice and avalanches. Roger was our most talented skier, so he'd occasionally take a little air...


Closer to my new home in the 80s at Wanaka there was always Black Peak [Lake Wanaka in the background] or some early skinny ski [Nordic] touring on the nearby Pisa Range...


Canadian Keith shows how it's done on the Pisa...


Dot cooks in the sun - an illusion of warmth...


And what did I do this year 2011, for this long weekend break? I stayed at home, and this was a restful option, but each year is different!

Oh, and I scanned some more old colour slides as above.

Ralph Warburton - photographer, mountaineer and mountain guide

Several years ago or more Ralph Warburton, a well known Wanaka local decided to publish a book of his life's experiences. As an Apple computer techy I got involved quite often assisting with the technology needed for authoring and self publishing.

Ralph sadly passed away subsequently, and so too perhaps in sympathy did his computer! But I'd been backing it up, and with his daughter's permission some years back, I'm posting here the images [colour slides] he had scanned.

Presumably I've posted the eastern [Mt Cook] photos in this first installment. I also presume it's not always Ralph featuring in the images [after all he was a professional photographer, as well as an accomplished mountaineer and mountain guide], but his late wife Joyce.

Ralph and Scott on the Tasman Glacier. Mt Cook in the background...

Mt Cook National Park was formed in 1953, and as such dogs would have then been banned in the area, so using this as a guide I'm guessing the images would have been made just prior. Certainly Ralph's book [link below] would aid this dating, but it's been awhile since I read it.

The old De la Beche Hut, Mt Cook in the background...


I wonder who this is? Probably the Hochstetter Icefall on the right, which may make the rock part of the ANZAC peak. I recall seeing a famous photo of Samuel Turner poised on one leg for the camera on this peak, so there is this association in my brain, but the date range would probably be too disparate for it to be him...


Hooker hut with Mt Cook in the background...


Upper Tasman Glacier with Hochstetter Dome in the background...


If anyone can add information to these photos please contact me via email.

You can purchase Ralph's interesting book here

The next lot of images below seem to be of the West Coast - this is where Ralph lived for quite a few years.

I think this'll be the old hotel at Fox Glacier...


And this perhaps the old hotel at Franz Josef Glacier...


Guided group on one of the glaciers...









Scott was indeed a very good climber...






This looks like the old I Pioneer hut that was destroyed by rockfall...

Probably the head of the Franz Josef Glacier neve...




Okarito I presume...


I can only think these two men are gold mining the black beach sands. Possibly the Shaw Bros. of Gillespies Beach near Fox Glacier?...


Perhaps the same two fellows with Ralph and Scott...

A Plogs anyone?...















This looks suspiciously like it was taken looking down on the Grand Plateau - perhaps from Zurbriggins or the East Ridge of Mt Cook?...

More recently the Ralph I knew at Wanaka, with Joyce...

Thanks Ralph - it was a pleasure knowing you

Cheers

Donald