This is Slope Point. It is the southernmost tip on New Zealand's South Island. The airstreams loop the vast circumpolar Southern Ocean unobstructed for 2000 miles and then they smash into land. Here. They are so persistent and so violent that the trees are perpetually warped and twisted into these crooked, windswept shapes.
Unsurprisingly, no-one lives at Slope Point. Yet like virtually everywhere else in New Zealand you will find sheep in abundance. Even these hardy creatures need some shelter from the elements and so, decades ago, local farmers planted saplings which they hoped would afford their animals some respite from the often savagely inclement weather.
