Waimakariri River Valley.

Giant Panorama, Arthur's Pass, NZ.

Press for the panorama (it may be loading slowly, it is BIG)

Shadows point to the left <- on the left.
In the middle, the sun shines into the camera.
On the right, the shadows lie to the right ->.
This shows the picture really is very wide indeed (230°).

This large, progressive JPEG panorama starts quickly in Netscape and gradually improves, but nothing seems to happen in Internet Explorer, until it suddenly shows up at full resolution.
When the Internet is busy, you may have to press "reload", if connection is interrupted during the download.
However, the spectacular result is worth the wait!

Pan across the image using the arrow keys on your keyboard. (At least, this works in Windows 95)

The river valley is full of shingle, eroded from the mountains.
The mountains now rise out of a flat valley floor.
It is easily realised that the mountain's roots are far below this new, flat surface.
Shingle fans mark the entrance of tributaries carrying yet more erosion debris.
An obvious shingle fan is seen to the left (Jordan stream) and another by looking down Bealey ridge.
The fans have a delta shape (triangular) as they spread onto the valley floor.

Athletes in the Coast to Coast triathlon run down this valley on their way across the South Island and pick up kayaks at the railway bridge, to the east.

The whole panorama was used on the Schering Calendar Year Planner, 1999.
East (right) side was shown at high resolution in the 1999 Schering calendar.
West (left) side is seen at high resolution in the 2000 Schering Calendar.

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