Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Queenstown Hill

So last week ended up being kind of a big week on the bike. Kind of by accident, if you can call 700km and 24 hours in a week an "accident."

As such, I wasn't really looking forward to riding yesterday, so when Fockler suggested going for a hike up Queenstown Hill, it was a pretty easy sell. I hadn't been up there yet, have wanted to get up there for a while, and my time here is running out. It's literally in our backyard and was considered a sacred place by the Maoris.

It had been raining buckets earlier in the day but turned into a pretty nice afternoon. Warm day, everything fresh from rain, and vibrant fall colors all add up to one heck of a good excuse to take the fancy camera out.

In chronological order:

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On the way to the main walking track

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Just after starting up the hill

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A bit more uphill

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Escher-esque trees

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Still wet from the rain

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Foreboding forest

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Gnarled clearing

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Another view

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Light fighting its way in

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Very cool artwork just below the summit of Queenstown Hill...Basket of Dreams

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TSS Earnslaw making its way home under stormy skies

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The Remarkables behind classic NZ tussock grass

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Baa...

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Pervasive yellow and green

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Back in town...

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...playing around...

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...gonna be late for work...go home already!

On a more technical note, I've learned quite a bit in the last few days (more than I wanted to, frankly) about how web browsers display color. I had noticed that all of my pictures weren't looking as good as they should have been once they were posted, and I've figured it out. I won't go into the nuts and bolts of it, but suffice to say that you're a lot closer to seeing what I intend than you have been in the past months. If this rain keeps coming, I'll go through what I've already posted and fix it. But starting with those Arrowtown pics, we're on the right track.

Past Detritus