(photograph © Kiwi Daughter & Friends)
Here is my last post from Tokatoka peak, Northland.
I gave Himself and the girls my small camera to take to the top.
Himself didn’t let them stay too long on the summit as he said it was a relatively small space with sheer drops over three quarters of the surrounding sides and he felt more than a little nervous there as the sole parent and half a dozen boisterous kids, the youngest of which was only four years old.
Yes, he kept the two youngest firmly by his side.
The older girls passed the camera around and didn’t remember any more who took which photo (there were a lot more photos but none of them were particularly good at keeping the camera very still, so few turned out in focus.)
In a few other shots I got close ups of leaves and branches on the closest bushes but only fuzzy background of the views behind)
Let’s take a look at the photos that turned out well and the stunning views they captured of the surrounding countryside.
In the second photograph (that I took from the bottom) the little grey upright faint smudges you can see at the very top of the peak is them!
(photograph © Kiwi Daughter & Friends)
(photograph © Kiwi Daughter & Friends)
(photograph © Kiwi Daughter & Friends)
(photograph © Kiwi Daughter & Friends)
Looking back down at the van…
(photograph © Kiwi Daughter & Friends)
(photograph © Kiwi Daughter & Friends)
(photograph © Kiwi Daughter & Friends)
Awesome views! Looking at these I’m taken back to my childhood when, on Sunday’s, we would often take a ride to a place where you could drive up the side of a mountain, park, and then hike the rest of the way to the summit (maybe a 20 minute walk). Once at the top, you could get 360 degree views, farmland and rural areas as far as the eye can see. The very first time I went I was surprised to see that the land below actually looked like the images I had seen in books – plots of land cut into almost perfect rectangles and squares! For some reason, I always figured that is just what they put into geography books but the land couldn’t possibly REALLY look so perfect. Oh, the mind of a child!
Comment by milkayphoto — July 3, 2012 @ 6:20 pm |
Tracy, amazing isn’t it? This is mostly pastoral land, and of a terrain that limits “square block” style paddocks but in other parts of New Zealand (and most notably on the Canterbury Plains outside Christchurch city in the South Island) the land is more or less flat and flying over it into Christchurch airport gives a stunning view of the “patchwork” effect.
Speaking of kids views of geography, brings to mind a trip my sister and I made with my Mother to Wellington as young teens. I get horribly car-sick so my sister had the map and job of navigator.
After several wrong turn mishaps my Mother was getting exasperated with my sister who angrily snapped back “well it’s not MY fault the blue road line on the map isn’t ON the road!!!!”
Comment by kiwidutch — July 3, 2012 @ 7:17 pm |