Aoraki, the Cloud Piercer

Posted by Alistair Keddie (Glasgow, United Kingdom) on 20 March 2010 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand catches some late red light as it towers above a glacial river in the Hooker Valley. Aoraki, the Cloud Piercer to give the hill its vivid Maori name is still some ten kilometres away from this vantage point which gives some idea of its scale. The river, is icy cold even in the height of summer, running directly off glacier melt water. The whitish grey colour is created by a fine sedimentary dust of ground up rock 'flour' held in a relatively dense suspension. As this dilutes further downstream and runs into lakes its colours take on intense turquoise hues quite unlike anything I've seen before.

I was lucky to be in New Zealand in February this year as a prize I won in a photography contest organised by Get Me Down Under and sponsored by Intrepid Travel and Royal Brunei Airlines for a shot I took there on a previous visit. Will be posting more from the trip over the next few weeks.

Welcome to big Alba photography and the fine art photographic work of Alistair Keddie, a photographer, artist and animated film maker from Scotland with a deep passion for photographing the landscape.

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