Into the blue! Southland, New Zealand. 29 December 2022.
Narrow, rough, rural, gravel road rising gently ahead with a slight curve, uphill, until it vanishes into a summer blue sky. Roadside verges are rough with long grasses and weeds, and then rough pasture with scattered tussocks.
Text and photo by Liz; Exploring Colour (2022/2023)
Exploring Colour 
And I thought the tussocks were sheep at first! Lovely composition, Liz, taking us up over that hill! It leaves me wondering what’s down the other side.
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I’ve more photos from that drive Ellen and will share a few of them, they offer an idea of what we see on back country drives through local farmland.
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Seems like there outa be a stagecoach goin’ down that road and off toward the horizon.
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Yes, you’re on to it Robert! I *did* spot a wagon base (with one hoop at the front), sitting in a farm yard paddock. I got a photo and will share soon, and fyi I had it up on screen yesterday comparing it with your picture of people on a covered wagon! I was comparing the front hoops!
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Looks like great countryside for spotting wildlife. The rough road makes an inviting-looking place to walk.
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We love driving roads like this! For wildlife we’re more likely to find interesting sights when we’re in native bush, at the beach, or poking around wetlands, or at big public gardens. E.g. today we visited Dunedin Botanic Garden and I saw a native bellbird working on two different flowers (neither native). One on kniphofia in the South Africa garden, another on kangaroo paw flowers in the Australia garden 🙂
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I watched a programme on TV this morning that included visits to a couple of New Zealand gardens – very interesting and very different. (I spotted a New Zealand Christmas tree that I’d also seen in one of your posts. 🙂 )
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Cool! The pohutukawas are flowering right now, saw some lovely ones near the coast as we drove home from Dunedin yesterday afternoon!
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They’d be a spectacular sight!
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Tussocks was a new word for me. I thought the clumps were hay bales.
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We have a few tussock grasses of various size and colour, growing in various habitats. Especially lovely when seen in the “high country” – the higher altitudes that get snow in the winter.
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