Aoraki (Mt Cook) with Lupins

Rather stylised, the boulders in this river valley are enhanced by their backdrop of the majestic Mt Cook/Aoraki, in New Zealand's Southern Alps.

These rounded boulders are carried from the surrounding mountain peaks by rushing torrents after heavy rain. They tumble along in the raging waters, their sharp broken corners smoothed and rounded as they knock and rub against other. Gradually the Canterbury Plains have been built up in this way over the millennia, and eventually the smaller particles reach the coast where they're deposited as sand and silt.