Awesome photos thread

Welcome to Mordor.


^ A pic I took of two of the three great volcanoes of the central plateau, Ngauruhoe (right) and Tongararo. Mt Ngauruhoe was used as Mt Doom.


^ NZ's largest volcano, Ruapehu, awesome for skiing on. All three volcanoes are very active.


^ family photo of me skiing on that volcano as a kid.


^ OK, technically I lied, this HUGE lake next to the central plateau is technically our largest volcano, but thankfully it's dormant for a bit. The last eruption, in 186CE, spewed out so much ash that historians in both Rome and China recorded that the sky turned red. Taupo is so huge that it's pretty much its own region though so I'll come back to it later.


^ Photo I took of the forest surrounding the Rangipo desert.


^ I took this one while crossing a super-dangerous ford. Several people have died here as the water can rise very rapidly.


^ Probably NZ's most popular hiking trail, the Tongararo Crossing goes between Mt Tongararo and Mt Ngauruhoe. The nearer lakes are called the Emerald Lakes, and the further lake is called the Blue Lake. And that line of people you see walking there extends for the entire trail.


^ The so-called Red Crater. Guess why.

admin: Mountains? I can top that. Welcome to the Grand Canyon, which scored three titles consecutively, as a member of the 7 wonders of the world. Been to this place three times.


Went on this thing with my father. Kept joking that he would push me over the ledge. I wasn't amused.

Believe it or not, the Pueblo built their cities into the canyon walls. So did an ancient Chipache tribe known as the alwa-something.

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While I'm at it, I might as well do Arizona. Been there 4 times. Not my photo, but I stood where where the guy is in this photo (maybe higher up, can't remember???)


Popular tourist destination. Can stand in four states at once .
I actually was disappointed to discover that it is a few inches off. Well, I didn't know at the time

I loved the petrified forest. It is a national park, where all the trees petrified into stone.

I'll be honest. I had to look back at a tourist guide to remember all these places. Sedona was awesome, but the mountains were nauseating and void of life.


Monument rock. There's a 500$ fine for taking the red sand, but we did it anyways.

It is called monument rock, because it was the first US national monument. Finally, some wildlife museum I went to in Tuscon. Extremely good one actually.


I remember that we got lost alongside that mountain looking for the museum.

Blackflag: Grand Canyon definitely has to be one of the awesomest places in the USA.

Also, I forgot to mention, but the central plateau is also known as national park because it was the first national park in the world, which is pretty cool.

admin: One thing that you guys have convinced me of, is that New Zealand isn't that bad of a place to go to.
I expressed this to NZlockie, but I'm a huge fan of mountains, cattle, and large plains.

I think New Zealand fits the bill perfectly.

Unfortunately for me, cowboy culture exists in the mountain states, where there isn't as many amenities. I live in the midwest, which is pretty flat for farming. Minnesota and Wisconsin are two of the healthiest places in the world (they value good food as well), partly because of that.
Michigan is in the same in most regards, except it is coastal, so most people (not working for farms or the car industry) live along the coast, on the beach, or in our islands.

I'll do Hawkes Bay - the province where I live!



This is a shot taken of the Tukituki river valley from TeMata Peak. Hawkes Bay is largely made up of the Heretaunga Plains, which are are a series of long flat areas on top of a massive Artesian Water Basin. As such it's has long been famous for horticulture.


In the last 20 years, numerous droughts have seen a shift away from Apples and the like, and into Viticulture. Hawkes Bay is now one the largest areas in NZ for growing grapes. A lot of the wine that is sold as being from Malborough, (scenic south island) is actually made from Hawkes Bay grapes.


Because we are on the East Coast, our beaches tend to be stoney ones, although we definitely have our share of nice sandy ones too. This is a shot of Cape Kidnappers. Those things that look like seagulls are actually Gannets. Cape Kidnappers is the largest mainland breeding colony for gannets in the world. This shot has been taken from a Golf Course that has been consistently ranked in the top 10 courses in the world.