Bumps

Driving down from New Plymouth to Wanganui via the coast road we noticed these bumps in the land around us. There were hundreds! Have yet to discover what and why!
Three good things:
1. Another lighthouse in the books. Wild and beautiful as usual.
2. The rain kept us inside in our hotel called "The Grand" so we read and surfed 365.
3. A lovely Maori guy who was in charge at the Irish Pub where we ate sat down with us to apologise that he had just sent our order in - after about 1/2 hour! I said thats fine - just refill our wine and let me take your photo! He did!

[Shepherdman]

If we saw these in the UK we would assume that they were prehistoric burial mounds. Does NZ have similar features?

[Maggiemae]

@shepherdman Just discovered they are called "lahar mounds" - volcanic mud deposits swept down the mountain slopes during Pleistocene times. So numerous and interesting!

[gloria jones]

Great shot, layers

[Kerry McCarthy]

Glad you learned the answer, very interesting. The cattle would probably be disappointed to know they weren't the subject of your photo. :)

[Margaret Pengelly]

I'm enjoying this tour of the North Island with you.

[Maggie]

Lovely pastoral view. Good to see cows doing their thing and you can always get at least one to pose.

[Bep]

Interesting landscape.

[Maggiemae]

@mccarth1 They all came rushing over to the fence where we had parked, Kerry and John moo'ed at them and they moo'ed back!

[Sebastian Gritt]

Great capture.

[Lisa]

love it

[Ann Williams]

Interesting - glad you solved the mystery of the mounds. Wonderful scene with the cows too.

[Pat Knowles]

Well the perfect answer to a delayed order......the Irish guy would appreciate that! Hope the wine was free!! Interesting about the bumps but there again I think NZ is full of humps & bumps! That's not Kerry I have met that's with you is is? Say hello if it is! Lovely mooooo cows! Love that there is a matching pair on either hill!

[Maggiemae]

@happypat No Kerry is still in Manchester, Pat but coming out to NZ in December. These humps were most peculiar! I liked the two on the hill too!

[Maggiemae]

@flowerfairyann I like your words, "Mystery of the Mounds" Ann! Encourages me to think of them all as homes for gnomes!

[Graeme Stevens]

I was going to say that those are our local Lahar Mounds but I see you've discovered that for yourself ;)

[Tony]

Interesting landscape and good looking cattle.

[Beryl Lloyd]

A wonderful rural capture Maggiemae

[Gillian]

So interesting. What a fabulous road-trip you are having in your own country.

[katy]

They look like cows to me! At least that is what we call them in the US! ;~} Lovely image!

[richard saffold]

another good reason to travel by car.

[Taffy]

Bumps are the hills? Or the cows? Either way, the composition works very nicely!

[Stephanie Swift]

A least the gentleman in the pub acknowledged and apologized for the lateness of getting your order in--I think that's admirable. Do we get to see his picture?

[Maggiemae]

@tristansmum I'll put it up now, Stephanie

[Gena Pegg]

Makes a beautiful pastoral scenes! Love the one brown and white mixed in with the black and whites.

[Rick Schies]

Nicely done. That brown one spotted you

[Sandy]

Lovely pastoral scene and my eye is drawn to what looks like a little town all the way in the distance.

[Maggiemae]

@skstein Your eye is drawn very nicely but not to a town - it was just a road where vehicles where coming down. I couldn't make this clearer!

[Yao RL]

You surely know how to take the situation to your advantage - this is a compliment.

[Maggiemae]

@graemestevens A most interesting discovery, Graeme - not seen anywhere else in NZ. (I did think they were actually all homes for gnomes!)

[Maggiemae]

@yaorenliu Thank you Yao - from you I would not expect any discouraging comment!

[Graeme Stevens]

@maggiemae Around the coast it wouldn't surprise me if they were!

[Rosan]

Great shot and interesting about the bumps.

[Ashley]

Love the mood of the light!

[Joyce]

Wonderful lighting Maggie and those cows look in a hurry to get somewhere. Hope you got free wine!

[Lady Magpie (Heather)]

Unusual humps but they didn't give the cows the hump.

[Nina Ganci]

interesting about those humps! wow! At least the ground is very fertile and green

[Barb Newcomb]

Interesting humps - thanks for sharing. Lovely pastoral scene.

[Junko Y]

Those cows looking out at you are great! And that cow on the left on the hill -- took me instantly back to a moment when I saw such an image, a lone cow on a hill under the moon -- but we were driving and that image remains only in my mind and sadly, not taken through the camera.
What did you do to get the effect on the top half of this photo?

[Maggiemae]

@jyokota I use the camera to HDR then stack them in Photomatix then also adjust using levels in iPhoto. Heaven knows what arrives after all this!

[Junko Y]

@maggiemae -- that's what I do, too, except I use Aperture. The clouds have a hand-painted effect, however you achieved that!

[Ann H. LeFevre]

Isn't it great how 365 gets us wondering about what we are looking at and then finding out the answer. How cool- volcanic mud deposits! Sounds much lovelier than what it really is. But the cows are quite pleased with them.