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I have just returned from a two week touring holiday in New Zealand and as the Ozzie saying goes: "it didn't happen until you tell the mates" so now I am telling you that I have a passion for the Land of the Long White Cloud; Ao Tea Roa. In two weeks I drove about 3,000 km (1,900 miles) and took about 1,600 pictures. This web page will show you only 31 of them - probably not what the tourist commission of New Zealand would have selected but a set that makes me come back to NZ time and again.
Geologically speaking NZ is a beautiful growing teenager with the mountains growing higher shaking the earth daily - that's one reason why the houses are made from timber. It is a land of milk and honey but there is more: sheep, peaches, apricots, apples, kiwi fruit (Chinese gooseberries), green lip mussels and friendly people.  This little house in Akaroa Bay, just outside Christchurch, was converted into a restaurant and when it is not raining you can enjoy the garden. It is typical of many, many timber cottages with lovely gardens.  The temperate climate and high rainfall result in gardens we can only envy.  Mt Cook was one of the few peaks covered by snow in late summer. The milky green water of Lake Pukaki is due to rock flower - fine powdered rock from the green stone suspended in the lake. It also explains why so many rivers have green milky water.  After summer melted the snow, the mountains look like this - gray tops  NZ is a geological teenager and great fun for young people. These ones are river boarding between Cromwell and Queenstown. Note the green water.  |
