by Jock Phillips
The first Europeans in New Zealand found its landscapes desolate and forbidding – unless they could be used for farming, gold mining or timber. ‘A mountain here is only beautiful if it has good grass on it … if it is good for sheep, it is beautiful, magnificent, and all the rest; if not, it is not worth looking at,’ wrote Samuel Butler in 1863. Later, unspoilt lakes, forests and snowy peaks became central to the notion of ‘beautiful New Zealand’.
Main image: Framing the landscape
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