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| 17 Images. | ||||
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 | Undergrowth and Rocks. Wandering along a dirt road through an Ecological Reserve, south of Mt Ruapehu, I found this darling little snippet of nature. | |||
| Near Mt Ruapehu. 9:17 am, Sun 17th Jul, 2005 | ||||
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 | Moss Covered Boulders of Wairere Boulders. The Wairere Boulders are rather unique, they were formed by a layer of Basalt lava having the clay beneath eroded away by the Wairere river, causing the lava layer to break up and slide into the river valley, over 2.8 million years. | |||
| Wairere Boulders, off the road to Kaikohe. 11:28 am, Wed 10th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Boulder Soup. Part of the uniqueness of these boulders is the 'fluting' on them, believed to be the result of organic acids washed from Kauri trees, etching the basalt rock away. Incredibly there were Kauri growing amongst these rocks when the Europeans arrived here. | |||
| Wairere Boulders, off the road to Kaikohe. 11:33 am, Wed 10th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Boulders on the Move. The fact that the fluting on some boulder runs horizontally, is mostly due to the boulders being dragged down the slope by gravity and erosion de-stabilising them, and so they roll to a new resting place, with a changed orientation, ready to make some new fluting. | |||
| Wairere Boulders, off the road to Kaikohe. 12:21 pm, Wed 10th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | A Turmoil of Boulders. I suppose when the boulders reach the river bed in the valley, they have reached their destination, and will remain there for the next 280 million years. But they look a lot like a rock glacier rather, perhaps they are slowly tobogganing down the hill towards the sea, in the slippery mud of the valley? | |||
| Wairere Boulders, off the road to Kaikohe. 12:31 pm, Wed 10th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Boulder Walk. Part of the track where it crosses over the top of some larger boulders, seen from the return track. While this part of the track and other parts look rather precarious, at no stage did I feel nervous, a testament to the careful construction that went into this walking track. | |||
| Wairere Boulders, off the road to Kaikohe. 1:10 pm, Wed 10th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Dark and Moody Boulder. I have no idea why this boulder is the colour it is. Perhaps it is some form of peat, or perhaps it is stained from something in the top soil under which it used to reside? | |||
| End of Te Paua Road, Parengarenga Harbour. 9:47 am, Fri 12th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Boulders Break Away from the Cliff. This is where the dark boulder came from, it looks like some form of peat to me? Although the clay slightly further down from the dark layer looks like normal clay, oh well maybe someone can let me know :) | |||
| End of Te Paua Road, Parengarenga Harbour. 9:47 am, Fri 12th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | The White Rock. More boulders; this looks like lime stone with tell tale holes that are often found in Limestone. My Sister might know about these, she is a geologist! | |||
| End of Te Paua Road, Parengarenga Harbour. 9:51 am, Fri 12th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Boulder with Banding. The mysterious boulders! This one looks like it may have been oriented differently once upon a time, with the banded part sticking up out of the water perhaps, I don't know :) | |||
| Mangawhai Heads surf beach. 10:39 am, Mon 15th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Yet More Boulders. I like the look of some of these boulders, the surface looks powdery, like they are made of some soft kind of rock. | |||
| Mangawhai Heads surf beach. 10:40 am, Mon 15th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Lake Taupo and Mt Ruapehu. You might wonder to yourself, where did that large boulder come from? Well, to tell you the truth I'm not really sure, but I think it came from that mountain over there! In many places around the north island you can find pumice that was launched from volcanic eruptions, but pumice is much lighter and flies a lot farther than boulders like this one :) | |||
| Lake Taupo. 4:57 pm, Tue 16th Aug, 2005 | ||||
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 | Little Rock Waterfall. After larger waves hit the back of this rock, little rivulets would run down the side, feeding the little barnacles growing there, and making the rock look nice and rich coloured. | |||
| Point Dorset, Wellington. 4:16 pm, Sat 24th Feb, 2007 | ||||
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 | Mt Ngauruhoe. Mt Ngauruhoe and just to the left of it is Mt Tongariro, seen from the road up to Mt Ruapehu. | |||
| Tongariro National Park. 12:01 pm, Thu 27th Dec, 2007 | ||||
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 | Hidden Beauty. A very delightful place to have a picnic as we did one day. There is a small sandy flat area about 3 picnic blankets in size just down stream from here. | |||
| Down the road from Mt Ruapehu. 12:31 pm, Thu 27th Dec, 2007 | ||||
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 | Mung on the Rocks! Mung sits by the water as it slides past, not caring what is in the way, not trying to avoid obstacles, it embraces everything that it touches, leaving its watery presence as a memento. | |||
| Tongariro National Park. 1:36 pm, Thu 27th Dec, 2007 | ||||
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 | Makara Beach. The pebbles of Makara beach (if you can call it a beach!). I went there to take some video, which I did, but even though I was using a tripod the was juddering the camera too much, still it was a nice wee adventure. | |||
| Makara beach, Wellington. 6:47 pm, Thu 12th Nov, 2009 | ||||
