High country New Zealand

The mountains Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro are just north of Taihape where I grew up. Below is a watercolour of Mt Ruapehu, painted from Waiaruhe Road just south of Waiouru on Highway 1, or what we used to call 'the main trunk road'.  New Zealand high country countryside is stunning and I paint it every time I visit.

Mt Ruapehu, NZ

I'll be back in Taihape later this month, visiting my Mother who still lives there. Her place is almost opposite the tall blue Taihape town clock .

Taihape, New Zealand Card by elizabethgw

Ngauruhoe Music

I grew up in the shadow of the Ruahine Ranges to the S/E of Mt Ngauruhoe, an active volcano which, we children were told, had once erupted sending ash high into the air and later settling on the roof of my parents home.

This piece of pale green argillite (also found in the Ruahine Ranges) from the beach at Colac Bay reminded me of Mt Ngauruhoe.

The copper coloured sunsets behind the mountain viewed from my parents former home are often stunning. I like to think of the eruptions as Ngauruhoe’s way to make music - thus the musical notes in the volcanic cloud.