A Wild Vista

[ See "Climbing Mt. Titiroa — A Gallery", for more info and photos on Mt. Titiroa ]

Despite the best of intentions, I’ve yet to spend any meaningful time working on the visual design and layout of this blog. The default ‘Kubrick’ theme that comes with WordPress is of course clean, subtle, and eminently suitable for a fledgling blog. Without considerable care and restraint, I could quite easily wreck things as they stand (though of course, I do have backups — more on that some other time).

In lieu of any more fundamental work, replacing the default plain-blue banner (or header if you prefer) seemed like an easy change to effect, and so it proved. A little simple pixel-pushing with Paintshop Pro to resize, crop, and add rounded corners to my selected image, and I was done.

Choosing the image was a little harder. I knew I wanted an image that included a human figure, preferably silhouetted, and diminutive in comparison to the sweeping landscape (or indeed, ‘vista’!) in which it should appear. Mountains would be good too. Whichever image I chose would require a substantial crop — the proportions of a blog banner are completely different to the standard 3:2 of 35mm film and most digital sensors.

And so, here’s the original (uncropped) image that I went with:

Taking in the view from Mount Titiroa, Fiordland, New Zealand.

All the elements I wanted are there, and the required aspect ratio meant I could crop out the distracting lens flare that crept into the top half of the frame. Another plus point for me is that the image is predominantly of the same hue, making it subtle enough to sit well as a banner, and not cause undue distraction.

As for the location, well, I took this on a 2½ day trip out of Manapouri — a small settlement a little to the south of Te Anau, on the edge of Fiordland National Park in New Zealand’s South Island. There’s a fairly easy track in to the base of Mount Titiroa, but having crossed the (unbridged) Garnock Burn, you’re left to your own devices. Bashing your own route through steep beech forest is quite invigorating, especially when carrying camping gear!

A camp high on the mountain, just above the bushline, allowed for an early start the next morning, climbing the summit ridge to the top of Mount Titiroa (1715m), and making a leisurely descent back to camp, and half-way out to Manapouri. The photo in question is from the summit ridge, and includes one of the many wind-carved quartzite boulders that create so much interest on this mountain.

Mount Titiroa from Manapouri is an enjoyable little expedition, which I’ll probably write about in more detail at a later date. There’s some more information about the adjacent area on the NZ Department of Conservation (DoC) website (here), though their reference to Mount Titiroa is limited to: “Mt. Titiroa can be reached from the Snow White clearings (refer Moirs Guide South).”. ‘Moir’s Guide’ will also be the subject of a future post. If you want to get a feel for the scope and scale of the trips and explorations you can make in the NZ backcountry, Moir’s Guide is as good a place as any to start.