Mastodawn

Photos dump time. Posted 22 sets of photos in May, which is up from January-April but not as many as late last year. The backlog is back down to under two years, with the next set being from the Ghost Ridge in late June/July 2024.

https://patricklam.ca/post/20260605-may-photos/

While looking at these pictures, I did note that the Cascade Saddle and the Tour du Mont Blanc had a lot more epic mountain pictures than the Travers-Sabine.

As a contrast, some urban pictures next.

Back to nature landscapes! #mosstodon

Time for the birds segment! Starting with a hoiho/yellow-eyed penguin at OPERA outside Dunedin, plus a pied shag. #BirdsNZ #Birds

There was a decent amount of birds on the Travers-Sabine. #BirdsNZ #Birds

Some more urban birds and ex-birds. #BirdsNZ #Birds

The last bunch of bird pictures this month. #BirdsNZ #Birds

I do have more animal pictures, but let's have a Dunedin intermission. In August 2024 we went to the Catlins via Dunedin. We stopped by Tunnel Point, which does have impressive rocks. #GeologyPics

I just read the David Attenborough book on invertebrates. They get up to all sorts of shenanigans. Anyway, here are some invertebrates; the blue butterfly is from the Tour du Mont Blanc, while the orange butterfly and outside grasshopper are from the Travers Sabine. The cicada was inside my place.

More animals (mostly), including a vertebrate.

Vegetable sheep isn't a sheep, it's a plant. Here are more wild plants. #botany

I once wondered whether fungi are flora. I mostly found out that the term "flora" is outdated. #fungi #fungiFriday

Reposting to not break the thread. This is a lot of pictures. I've posted them before, I think, but here are the pictures from the main Cascade Saddle part again, since they appeared in the May photos post. #tramping

And here are some summits from the top of Cascade Saddle.

Raspberry Creek to Cascade Saddle to Dart to Muddy Creek is one day with epic views and 3 days with pretty good views, plus takahē.

The Tour du Mont Blanc has a lot more epic views, though it is easier, more civilized, more crowded (at least on the normal route), and much further from Aotearoa. I am still working through that, but I managed to do one more TMB day in May. #hiking #Alps

That night we stayed at the Refuge de Nant Borrant, which is not that far from town, but it is uphill. #hiking #Alps

Back to Aotearoa: I don't think I have posted these pictures from the Travers-Sabine back in February 2024. #tramping #HutLife

What? Power in the Upper Travers hut? Yeah, nah. psst @clement here is a different tarn from a different part of the South Island, but I did get reflections in this one. #HutLife

Blue Lake is not actually on the Travers-Sabine Circuit but it's worth an extra day at Blue Lake Hut to visit. That sentence is misleading advertising, though: here are the pictures from just before Blue Lake. #tramping

Here is Blue Lake and Lake Constance (which is just a bit after Blue Lake). The Waiau Pass is after Lake Constance, but we did not go there. #tramping #HutLife

Two more posts from Travers-Sabine. This one will be some more landscapes from the post-Blue-Lake part, going back to Robert Ridge. (This is not far from Angelus Peak where I had that cellphone adventure). The last Travers-Sabine post will have to wait a few hours.

Less landscape-y, more tramping-infrastructure-y, on the Travers-Sabine. #HutLife

Moving along, this is kind of how I feel about Christchurch...

It is true that Wellington has carparks too. Sometimes there are dragon dances on them, though.

There is something to be said for the Escarpment Track near Wellington, looking out over the Cook Strait (and to Kapiti Island, though it's only barely visible in one of the pictures here.)

Colonial Knob is also a worthy walk closer to Wellington, also with views of both Kapiti and Mana Island.

Let's wrap up this month's pictures with a visit to Nairn St Cottage in Wellington, which shows life in (pretty colonial) Wellington over the past century and a half. /fin

🇳🇿 Shayne Parkinson 6h ago

@va2lam A nice batch of pics!

The thing clamped to the bench is a mincer, btw. We had an ancient but still in good working order one when I was a child.

@ShayneParkinson thanks! My parents had a food processor I guess, though it doesn't look like today's, nor does it look like that one.

@va2lam
Surely these motu have enough colonial knobs? I prefer to call this place Rangituhi

@RedRobyn hadn't seen that name, thanks

@va2lam
I was there a few years back, with a few hours to while away I accidentally climbed a hill. I found all the online stuff had both names, but the signage is taking a while to catch up. Presumably a bit longer now