antipodes

At first I thought the color of Glenorchy and the Southern Alps was restrained.

The mountains are olive and celadon in the forested parts…

golden, where the  tussock grass grows…

and slate gray above the bush line.

The sky is most often a familiar cerulean…

and the water, full of minerals, reflects as emerald and bottle green.

The mountains encircle every space, each a bowl of cool light. The blue cast is lovely, but it pushes the palette of the place toward monochrome.  Blue, gray and ochre are the dominant hues. Leaf green and brown are next in the hierarchy.  Red, orange yellow, and purple are here, but in small amounts.

The cast of colors is somewhat restrained, but the opera is still a drama, and the narrative catalyst is time. Compare, for example, these two photographs of the Glenorchy lagoon in the morning and the late afternoon. In the morning, the colors are infused with yellow. Later, however, the warm hues drain away and the forms are filled with blue shadows and tipped with silver highlights.

The Glenorchy Lagoon in the morning.

The Glenrochy Lagoon in the afternoon

Pikirakatahi (Mt. Earnslaw) is outside my window, and over the course of days, the show of light and dark and shift from cool to warm is grand and slow like Wagner.

And sure enough as is the tradition in a stately performance, there is a little comedy…

which entered as a Toutouwai (New Zealand Robin), who was sure that the bright colors of the paint on my palette were edible. It sampled a little ochre, before it noticed the cracker I had provided.