The Power of Place
Just about now, (the Solstice, the longest day of the year, Dec 21st, at least here in the southern hemisphere), a 50-metre high monolith rises high in the valley above us, here at Mountain Spirit. It shows itself in the evening sunset shadows.
The Maori called this valley, Kahu, the Place of the Hawk. The summit, below which the monolith stands, is called Grandview because the first whites to gaze on the Upper Clutha Basin called it such a “grand view”. They came over the mountain and looked down on what is now Hawea and Wanaka, and were impressed with the valley and towering mountains to the west and south.
My son and I take occasional excursions near the monolith and I once walked up to its base, sniffing around for some potential rockclimbing sites. The monolith looked like a death wish, crumbly rock on all sides, but who knows, someone may try it someday. It just won’t be me. Besides, it should be left well enough alone.
The rock has different faces depicted in the rock, depending on whether you’re looking at it from the summit, to the side or below as in the images here.
I can imagine the Maori who lived in this valley, called this a power spot, similar to Bell Rock and other hot spots in Sedona, Mt. Shasta in California, and of course “Los Apus”, or, in English – The Mountain Spirits in Peru like Ausangate and Huascaran.
It feels like the energy in this valley is intense. Former owners (caretakers, actually) of this property, had their own challenges and there might be something to what indigenous peoples would say say: “The energy there was too intense to be living there all the time” as was said about Sedona.
It seems the massive stone watches over us througout the year, but this time of year, it really shows itself. I wonder if anything is written about this rock in any of the local historical writings. I’ll look into it and get back to you.
Meanwhile I thought you’d enjoy seeing some of the images just taken tonight.
Mountain Spirit's Blog 