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Extreme Antarctic Winds Shape Trees Into Beautiful Forms on Slope Point, New Zealand
Bored Panda ^ | November 14, 2013

Posted on 11/17/2013 9:27:48 AM PST by Pan_Yan

As wonderful and useful as our modern technologies are, there are still plenty of places in this world where Mother Nature rules supreme. One such place is Slope Point in New Zealand.

Slope Point is the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island. It lies 4800 km (2982 mi) from the South Pole and 5100 km (3168 mi) from the equator, so it’s regularly exposed to unimaginable weather conditions. The air stream loops that travel over the Southern Ocean uninterrupted for 3200 km (2000 mi) make landfall at Slope Point, making for consistently extreme winds. And yet, even in this uniquely harsh environment, extraordinary beauty can be found.

The extreme winds that batter Slope Point are so strong and consistent that the trees that grow there are molded into strangely and beautifully twisted forms. The trees themselves would not exist there if not for the sheep farmers that live nearby. Although Slope Point itself is almost uninhabited and is only reachable my foot, nearby farmers’ sheep graze there. The farmers raised small groves of hardy trees to offer their livestock some respite from the strong winds.

Writer Trevor Cree described the area like this: “It is not a wind that will necessarily break and snap at will, although clearly it can, it is its sheer relentlessness, like a gnawing toothache, that never ceases until total submission from the victim is achieved.“

(Excerpt) Read more at boredpanda.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Outdoors; Travel
KEYWORDS: antarctic; deformedtrees; nature; newzealand; trees; wind
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Amazing.
1 posted on 11/17/2013 9:27:49 AM PST by Pan_Yan
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To: Pan_Yan

Sounds like a great place for windmill erections. (the ecowackos know what that means. LOL!)


2 posted on 11/17/2013 9:30:40 AM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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To: Pan_Yan

Natural shelter.


3 posted on 11/17/2013 9:32:38 AM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Pan_Yan
This is what a Storm Surge looks like - Super Typhoon Haiyan Philippines
4 posted on 11/17/2013 9:32:52 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper (What we said when we said what we said was. Period. End of story.)
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To: Pan_Yan; shaggy eel; DieHard the Hunter

ping


5 posted on 11/17/2013 9:37:10 AM PST by null and void (I'm betting on an Obama Trifecta: A Nobel Peace Prize, an Impeachment, AND a War Crimes Trial...)
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To: Pan_Yan

Awesome article find. Amazing.


6 posted on 11/17/2013 9:39:12 AM PST by ColdOne (I miss my poochie... Tasha 2000~3/14/11) Hey, Harry Reid.. 1-800-318-2596!)
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To: Pan_Yan

As an Australian, I must admit, I envy the Kiwis for the bounty of scenic beauty they enjoy.


7 posted on 11/17/2013 9:39:54 AM PST by James C. Bennett (An Australian.)
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To: ColdOne

Bored Panda is a great site. They have lots of good stuff like this.


8 posted on 11/17/2013 9:41:01 AM PST by Pan_Yan (Who told you that you were naked? Genesis 3:11)
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To: Pan_Yan

I see that. I just went to the home page I will bookmark for sure.


9 posted on 11/17/2013 9:49:18 AM PST by ColdOne (I miss my poochie... Tasha 2000~3/14/11) Hey, Harry Reid.. 1-800-318-2596!)
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To: Pan_Yan

A beautiful corner of the Shire.


10 posted on 11/17/2013 9:52:55 AM PST by MUDDOG
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To: Pan_Yan

Cool, thanks.


11 posted on 11/17/2013 9:56:03 AM PST by corlorde (forWARD of the state)
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To: Pan_Yan

Very cool! But why does each photo remind me of Don King?


12 posted on 11/17/2013 9:59:19 AM PST by Huskrrrr
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To: Pan_Yan

It reminds me of the trees in Aruba


13 posted on 11/17/2013 9:59:53 AM PST by HollyB
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Divi trees


14 posted on 11/17/2013 10:01:27 AM PST by HollyB
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To: Pan_Yan
Beautiful! We didn't see these trees when we went to the south island of New Zealand and visited a museum with info about the South Pole. Pretty neat, I would have loved to have seen them!

There used to be a grove of oak trees on the Texas coast in the vicinity of Rockport and Fulton that looked like this.

I haven't been down to Rockport in years so I don't know if they are still there, it would be a shame if they are not there.

15 posted on 11/17/2013 10:04:13 AM PST by Ditter
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To: Ditter
Beautifully macabre images !


Unfortunately for this thread, one of the sidebar photo lists had this ...
The aftermath of a Princeton sophomor vs junior snowball fight

1893

When America grew men.that were proud of battlescars

16 posted on 11/17/2013 10:34:56 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
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To: Pan_Yan

There are similar trees along I-10 in the general area of the windmill farm near Palm Springs.


17 posted on 11/17/2013 10:35:34 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Pan_Yan
I like the use of the natural windbreak in this photo:


18 posted on 11/17/2013 10:37:08 AM PST by Rebelbase (Tagline: optional, printed after your name on post)
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To: Pan_Yan

Wow


19 posted on 11/17/2013 10:40:58 AM PST by Richard from IL
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To: Rebelbase

i thought NZ was a lot farther south. 46 degrees is about the sam distance south as Maine is north of the equator


20 posted on 11/17/2013 10:46:46 AM PST by beebuster2000
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