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Taranaki Landscapes 4

This batch of photos was taken early 2007 while based in Eltham helping renovate an old villa. The town of Eltham has a few thousand people and you can still hear the cows mooing from surrounding farms. The sky around here is still fairly dominated by the mountain.

 

Dusk cloud formations

 

The highest lookout point around is the rooftop

 

Dawns rays hit the bare summer mountain

 

New plymouth waterfront

 

Street architecture

 

Auckland could learn a thing or two

 

Birdwatching to be had

 

Desert road outlook on weekend trip to eastern Ruapehu

 

Ngarohoe in exceptionally clear weather

 

Climbing past Tukino ski village is incredibly hot and dusty

 

Mangatoetoenui Glacier below Te Huehue, the usual way up this side, but we neglected to bring our crampons

 

Whangehu hut perched on bluff above river by same name.

 

Sunset from 2100m

 

Looking straight down to the river--ring side seats.

 

The headwaters of the Whangaehu is its glacier and crater lake, source of impending lahar flows.

 

Dramatic volcanic landscape

 

Definately for those that want to get away from it all

 

Looking up the ridge to cathedral rocks and summit plateau.

 

More distant view of same on descent

 

Some serious heat scorched those rocks

 

Rolling Rangipo badlands

 

Its a vast cold desert

 

Main trunk power grid

 

Dusk sky images on road trip home

 

Ditto

 

Ditto

 

Three sisters on Taranaki coast

 

Then straight into the Auckland rush hour. Bit of a shock to the system, but storm clouds on the estuary are oddly calming

 

Back home and making the most of the clear weather, before winter arrives with a Taranaki climb

 

Coastline, climbing above the Manganui skifield at dawn

 

Clear but misty morning

 

Ascent is via Curtis ridge (to left of scree field at left), descent via East ridge (right of shadowed gut right off summit)

 

Less common view of Syme hut on route

 

and its Fanthom peak location

 

Shows Curtis ridge in its entirety, and the carpark at its base center left. What snow remains is icy.

 

Southeastern panorama

 

Southwestern panorama

 

The turtle at right and pyramids at center.

 

Looking down Carrington ridge to Holly hut, the Dome, and the Ahukawakawa swampland

 

Steep drop off western summit rocks

 

Piece o cake to the north west

 

Sharks fin sans ice

 

Massive ersion in gorge below pyramids has closed the track there.

 

Massive gorges in the southwest area, Kahui hut at right. There is a summit route in there some where

 

Deeply cut water courses stemming from one of NZs highest rainfall areas

 

A side view of Curtis ridge, and its unstable scree fields. Lots of falling rocks.

 

Descending the bald rock slopes prevalent on the upper eastern slopes--easy travel for the coolheaded

 


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