03 April 2009

Pourangaki river log (?)

Pourangaki river logHard not to believe this could be a taniwha, but I don't imagine one of those would show itself so easily. On the other hand, I don't recall noticing it while I was photographing.
All content © 2009 Pete McGregor
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11 comments:

  1. Relatively Retiring3 April 2009 at 20:13

    Ah, the wonderful energy of water - and I'm also very impressed by the potential energy of the creature in it. They sound like great structural engineers. I don't think we have them in UK. We just have drowned shopping trollies.

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  2. pohanginapete4 April 2009 at 09:59

    RR, I'm sure shopping trollies are much less influential. :^D

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  3. Ruahines4 April 2009 at 11:32

    Kia ora Pete,
    Love the texture and layering to this one. Heading out for 4 days on Monday though it looks like these past few days and today would have been the time! I'll take what I can get I guess.
    Cheers,
    Robb

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  4. pohanginapete4 April 2009 at 11:36

    Thanks Robb :^) Best of luck with the weather. Where are you heading for?

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  5. Ruahines4 April 2009 at 13:11

    Kia ora Pete,
    Heading out Monday morning as Tara quite tied up with uni papers. My original plan was head up Shorts track and camp up top somewhere before the turn off to Ngamoko - any good spots up there, any tarns? Then head to Ngamoko, Kinvig, and back up to Knights taking a couple leisurely days in the valley. I'll keep an eye on the wx, and my backup plan is either Parks Peak, or even the ever familar Maropea Forks.
    Cheers,
    Robb

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  6. pohanginapete4 April 2009 at 13:21

    Robb, it was pretty dry up there when I bivvyed out a few weeks ago. I took enough water for a brew and a feed but knew I'd be heading back down Shorts in the morning. Unless there's been some good rain up there, you might find nothing until you get to Ngamoko.

    Why not do the trip the other way? Nice tarns and camping spots at the top of Knights, and you'll be wading with the flow of the river rather than against it. I guess the problem is coming out over the tops and via Shorts if the weather's bad — navigation can be tricky if you don't have a GPS or haven't been over the route for a while.

    Cheers!

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  7. Zhoen4 April 2009 at 13:37

    Water like that is thick with magic, could be you caught it off guard, out of the corner.

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  8. pohanginapete4 April 2009 at 13:57

    Well put, Zhoen.

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  9. butuki5 April 2009 at 05:44

    My very first reaction was, "Wow! A Kelpie!", then I read your description. Here in Japan it might be a "kappa" or "mizuchi". If you've ever seen the mountains in Norway, you might very well believe it is a troll.

    Today's word verification is great "whompur"!

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  10. pohanginapete5 April 2009 at 07:10

    Miguel, thanks for the pointer to the Japanese terms. I guess most cultures with long histories in a place have some version of taniwha, kelpies, mizuchi or other water spirits. Must be something primal, I suppose.
    "Whompur" — there was a character with a name like that in the Moomin books, but he was a small boy. Mind you, some of them can be monsters ;^P

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  11. butuki5 April 2009 at 07:21

    Yes, I remember Whomper (^J^)

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