An Exercise in Colour

 

On the way over ‘the hill’, aka The Southern Alps towards Christchurch just a few weeks ago I was blown away with the colour that just jumped out and announced itself as strong and bold and very distinct.

Firstly there was the vivid yellow that erupted from the gorse plants.  Gorse in New Zealand is a noxious weed, something that grows where nothing else will and definitely where you don’t want it to.  It has been said that early settlers to NZ from Scotland brought gorse seeds with them to plant as their bright yellow would break up the never ending green scenery. 

Who ever brought it here would be so pleased with the colour now – even though most of us would gladly get rid of it.

Further on through the hills and valleys that are part of the Alps and down the long, winding road another colour took over thanks to the wild lupin plants.

Now, this is more to my taste, gentle soft mauves and purples, a lot more calming on the eye.

the lupines' seemed to have snaked their way through what was once a raging river and before that a massive glacier.

Onward we went and by this stage I knew not to put the camera away I had already missed too many shots as I hadn’t expected to be so excited by the scenery.  It didn’t take long before the bees favourite came into view – the gentle white clover looked like we had just experienced a light snow shower.

Mind you, the way those clouds were moving in I think we were expecting a rain shower instead.

But not before I had one more thing to photograph, and in some ways it was colour, this time black.

With a smudge of grey both here on the ground and high in the sky.

Thanks for joining me on my trip

Happy New Year to you all

hugs