A Place of Significance

Castle Hill. August 2009. Ajr

I drove up to Castle Hill, between Porter's and Arthur's Passes last week. My Australian visitor was keen to go rock climbing and this is one of the favoured spots in Canterbury for that. I love it for an entirely different reason. The landscapes up here are majestic and ever-changing - a photographer's paradise. Castle Hill, or Kura Tawhiti is also of special significance to Maori. I've written about it here before so I won't repeat all the information. If you click on Castle Hill in the label line below you'll be able to read the piece I did about early Maori using the area as a natural shelter. It's now a Conservation Area and there are early Maori rock drawings in the area - if you kno0w where to look. It was raining when we were up there last week and the gigantic limestone rocks took on a spooky, almost animate quality - so different to the summer photographs of my previous post.