Makaretu River
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Ruahine Ranges /\/\/\^^^~ ~
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*=725 182 ^*^~~~~~}~~~~~~~/\^^~~
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D=Dannevirke ~~D~~~/~~~~^^^^^^^^~^~
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Manawatu River
This map straddles the saddle between the upper Manawatu (draining Southwest, past Palmerston North, into the Tasman Sea), and the Makaretu which flows into the Tukituki, thence out to Hawkes Bay on the Pacific coast. These form a single broad valley extending from the Southwest to Northeast, with the uninhabited Ruahine ranges encroaching on the Northwest corner, and the smaller, farmed, Raikatea and Turiri Ranges in the South and centre. The floor of the Manawatu valley is so riddled with tiny streams and ridges that the map appears to have been finely crumpled, while the other valley is completely flat, marked only with the scattered straight lines of fences, roads, and shelter belts. Apart from these valleys, through which goes State Highway Two, the map is scarcely populated. Four towns appear upon it, by far the the largest being Dannevirke in the Southwest.
On the side of a steep Ruahine foothill, very exposed to the Westerly wind. Although farmland, the only animal was a lonely duck. Across the valley were bushy mountains appearing rather small in superimposed rows. Cloud shadows raced with extraordinary pace, from horizon to here in seconds. I became stupidly enraptured with their colours. Colours that could not be reproduced on film. Grass moved in waves with the wind. The film has grass, duck, a fenceline and some clouds.
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