Legendary Flowers

Paradise Meadows and Forbidden Plateau are in the news - but in a rather unusual way!
Here is a link to the story.

The 'native legend' mentioned is actually a story invented back in the 1920's by local newspaper publisher Ben Hughes. The occurrence of pink snow is due to an algae -  a fascinating phenomenon of nature.

The rhododendrons in the article sound wonderful -  all gardeners are no doubt looking forward to seeing them. The Plateau area has its own native wild white rhododendrons, which should be blooming by mid July.

Snow's Melting

"Thought you might like to see how the hut (Centre) is doing... snow is going down slowly," says Kate, who was up at Paradise Meadows yesterday.   "Had a lovely circuit of the lakes and only saw 2 other people."

"I walked on top of the snow to Battleship and then decided to put on my snowshoes as it was a bit like walking in sand... and left them on for the rest of the day... pretty much stayed on either the snowshoe trails and the ski trails... although you could go anywhere.  The bridge at Helen MacKenzie was unuseable because of the amount of snow either end (bridge was clear) but there is a snow bridge you can cross on and the bridge lower down still has a ton of snow on it.    I stayed off the lakes as they are starting to look a little dicey but there is still lots of snow around.   It was a gorgeous day up there. "

Thanks for the report!

Another Sunny Day

Sunny days continue to warm up the alpine  - much less snow is visible now on Mt. Albert Edward , as compared with a month ago.