Tags
HDR, Karangahake Gorge, Ohinemuri River, Olympus OM-D, Paeroa, Photography, Rivers, Streams, Talisman Mine, Waitawehta Stream
One of my most favourite places to wander with my camera is also one that I find among the most challenging – where the Ohinemuri River flows through the Karangahake Gorge in the Kaimai Ranges between Paeroa and Tauranga. It is a fearsome gorge, cliff-lined with large boulders and at times spectacular floods, which frequently leave branches and other debris stranded high above the river to mark their passge.
Humans have also left their mark – it was the site of some extraordinarily strenuous gold mining endeavours, most notably associated with the Talisman Mine around the beginning of the last century, and the remains of these workings are well worth an explore. Then there’s vestiges of the old railway through to Waihi and beyond, and the modern highway – a spectacular piece of engineering that encourages all the local lads to drive at crazy speeds, and which always seems to want to intrude a piece of human infrastructure into the most carefully crafted image.