Some sorely overdue time offgrid. Hiked into the Tararua rainforest on a fine summer day and found a spot that had been eyed before as a possible campsite: no clearing needed, close to water, sheltered, no flood plane. It was perfect.
@JulianOliver awesome. It's now 23 years that I've been in #aotearoa for the last time. Far to long.
Some shots from the walk-in.
Some summer cicada buzz for you in the other hemisphere (you can get me back when it's cold and wet here).
Incidentally Aotearoa New Zealand has 42 unique species and subspecies of cicada.
@JulianOliver How wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
@JulianOliver I miss cicadas in the summer. We had them in New Jersey. In 2003 I was able to watch one of the largest broods emerge there. The sound was amazing. It sounded like 1950s flying saucers.
Sadly, the U.K. doesn't have them. I need to dig up that photo I took of one
@pertho @JulianOliver nice - I had the same experience growing up in north New Jersey, back in about 1985 or 1986, with 17 year cicadas (I guess it would've been '86 given your '03 experience). It was a sight (and sound) to behold. For a couple days they were ankle deep in some streets in our town.
@lightweight The '03 emergence I caught down in Princeton where there was a lot of really old trees so there were many more cicadas.
@JulianOliver
@pertho yep, the areas of Montclair where we had the drifts of cicadas were those with lots of established oaks and other big trees... @JulianOliver
@lightweight Oh wow. What town? I used to live in Morristown.
@JulianOliver
@pertho Montclair (just up the road) @JulianOliver
@JulianOliver yes, I always look forward to this time of year.
@JulianOliver incidentally, wondering if you've ever encountered this: I have a friend here in Ōtautahi who is incapable of saying a proper 'sssss' sound when she's among loud cicadas. It always turns into a 'sssh' - or even a 'tttth' - no matter how hard she tries.
@lightweight Yep! It wipes out the "sss" in human voice, the effect of a lisp. It seems to me that those with a lower tone or more textured "sss" are more readily heard against our particular summer wall of noise.
@JulianOliver oh wow. 🤩
Can’t wait for summer to return here
