Roads to Nowhere

One of the more beautiful and diverse destinations for landscape photography in New Zealand’s South Island is accessed from the Ashburton Gorge Road heading west out of the village of Mount Somers in mid Canterbury. The road divides after 24 km at the homestead of the oldest station in the region, the Hakatere, with a dirt road going to Erewhon Station up the Rangitata River and another to Mount Arrowsmith Station and Lake Heron. Erewhon is nowhere spelled (almost) backwards and when the station was settled in the mid-19^th century, the long rough wagon track was truly heading into nowhere.

Both roads lead through spectacular glacial valleys with numerous lakes, the classic braided Rangitata River, rolling hills covered with tussocks and beech forests; all ringed with rugged mountains including the spectacular Southern Alps. This is a region where you can quickly forget civilization and immerse your thoughts and emotions in nature and wildness.

Today there are a handful of big stations (high country grazing ranches with sheep, cattle and/or deer) and a large national conservation park sandwiched between the Rakaia and Rangitata Rivers. Being only 2.5 hours’ drive from Christchurch the road no longer leads to nowhere but the region retains its remote, wild character.

For a sense of scale, the Hakatere Conservation Park at the geographic heart of the area is 132,000 acres, Erewhon Station is 35,000 acres, Mt Arrowsmith Station is 19,800 acres, Mesopotamia Station is 15,000 acres and Mt Potts is 2,633 acres.

The photos in the gallery were taken on two consecutive June weekends this winter. Each weekend had very different weather conditions; one with strong winds and sculpted lenticular clouds from an approaching front and the other under stable high pressure and fair skies.

Hope you enjoy the pics and your own natural places for peace and contemplation.