That may be so, but it sure depends on where you look and how you squint your eyes. As I drove through today, under blue skies, taking the time to stop for a closer look than streaking through offers I found that it wasn't all pretty by any means. I looked at farmland, green and rolling and wondered about the story behind it. And I saw this:
It all looked like New Zealand in the colonial days when the land was being broken-in. I guess in the Catlins still is. In some paddocks, a tree or two had been left, probably as shelter for the livestock. This is just as poignant to me, as I know that this tree (below) is not going to reproduce, in that paddock at least, and its days are numbered, due to the effects of trampling by hooves.
So that's the Catlins, quite raw and, like the West Coast, very sobering for someone who likes forest.
4 comments:
Perhaps sir ought to remain intoxicated in the forests?
I'll never again try to post at the same time as watching The Hollow Men!
Both it and the Catlins visit were disturbing.
This is the sad reality for much of the "unspoilt" and iconic parts of NZ.
On the West Coast we are rapidly (and permanently) losing our iconic landscape.
Intensive dairying is simply wiping the landscape 'clean'. 20% of WC farms are owned from outside the region, and those Canterbury farmers don't like trees in paddocks.
And indeed, trees can not remain with the popular (and growing) practice of 'humping and hollowing' the land to improve drainage, which of course creates a whole new set of problems down stream.
We are seeing the loss of remnant Podocarps and those that remain slowly succumbing to cattle trampling.
The Northern Rata remnants on the 'Coast road' are almost all in serious decline, they especially can't deal with the new hoof traffic.
Very sad.
And very permanent.
Too few of us notice Shunda. And then we make too little noise.
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