I’ve posted a small subset of the 1,000+ photos I took in New Zealand on Flickr. Mel and I traveled for 18 days in a campervan over both the South and North Islands, sleeping in motorparks and driving incessantly. We covered a lot of ground: South – Queenstown, Fiordlands, West Coast, East Coast, Marlborough, Abel Tasman, North – Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua, King Country, West Coast, Auckland.
The Pohutu geyser at Te Puia continuously spews water into the air. This picture is only a short burst. I have some others where it’s at least 20 feet if not more. I just love all the sulfur and iron in the rock.
Pohutu Geyser, Rotorua, New Zealand
I’m not sure this is really a weta. I actually think it’s more of a beetle but I can’t find anything like it in my search for New Zealand insects. The only bonafide weta I saw was dead unfortunately. They’re just the ugliest or prettiest things, depending on your pov. Kinda like a potato bug with wings. This little guy is just so photogenic tho, don’tcha think?
Thirsty Weta
Kawhia was one of the most beautiful places we visited. I was hard not to take a stunning picture and the day was perfect for it as it had been pouring down rain. The black sand beaches and one of the oldest Maori settlements, it held a lot of charm and the people were very friendly.
After seeing the t-shirt with the man plowing the sheep from behind with the caption reading, “Men at Work”, I just wasn’t sure what to make of this advert in a shop window in Wellington for a watch maybe? I don’t even recall.
Man Sheep Advert
Just fantastic seeing this pool of boiling acidic liquid coming from the mother earth. She’s quite the artist. This is White Island, the most active volcano in New Zealand in the Bay of Plenty on the east coast of the North Island. Took a helicopter and a lot of money to get there but you couldn’t take a bad picture. It was amazing.
Acrid White Island Pool
I didn’t book enough time in Wellington. It was a pretty cool city but I was determined to spend more time in the country and less in cities. This motif is based on the ferns that grow all over New Zealand and influenced the majority if Maori design.
Wellington, New Zealand
The one that got away. The ship that was anchored broke away leaving the anchor stranded on the island. The ship got wracked up against the rocks and died there. So sad… But, the anchor sure is cool.
We went to Hokitika on the West Coast of the South Island for the Wildfoods Festival. This was year 21 and people come from all over, dressed in costumes like Halloween. There are booths offering an assortment of edible substances ranging from homemade licorice to grubs pulled from the bark of dying trees. I ate mountain oysters… ack! and Mel ate sand flies because he thought he was getting them back for eating him. We also tried worm truffles from this wonderful menu.
Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika, New Zealand
This was Abel Tasman National Park which we did a hike or “tramp” thru. The lagoon below was probably the furthest north of any privately held land. Chunks of land were granted decades ago for logging and farming and they were going to rampage this beautiful land like most of New Zealand, but for some reason that’s beyond my knowledge, they turned the area into a gorgeous national park but offered the land to the original claimants for habitation only. I’da taken it!
Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand
This was awesome. We did a trek from Tyrrant Bay to Anchorage Bay over an estuary during low tide which was incredible unto itself. But, when we got to Anchorage Bay, instead of heading to where our water taxi was to meet us, we went up the beach into this awesome alcove where we ran into a blue penguin in the wild. It was so cool to get up close to one of these adorable creatures and photograph him/her.
I’ve taken about 300 pictures at this point and my Canon S500 is dying. I have almost 2 more weeks here and I may have to buy a new camera to make it. We cruised Doubtful Sound, drove to Milford Sound, horse back rode into the mountains that has left my incredibly sore, seen some amazing lakes and taken pictures of them. I’ll be uploading to Flickr soon. In the meantime…
Wiki Jack connected with us in the the Auckland airport and has been hangin’ with us since. This is in Doubtful Sound in the Fiordlands of the southern South Island.
Wiki Jack in Doubtful Sound
I’m not sure these cows have ever seen humans before and they were so curious about what we exactly were that they came walking across the field and stopped to stare at us.
You know the kind I’m talking about where you give money to organizations who go to the front line in Washington to push a political agenda, many times trying to maintain a political right or uphold legislation. Currently, I’m speaking about the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, legislation for marriage equality, the restrictions on abortion arising from the new health care reform, big oil, preserving our national parks, preventing wolf slaughter, stopping quasi-scientific whale slaughter and dolphin slaughter in Japan’s coastal waters, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam.
Although it seems like its a necessity to counter your opposition to make change, I also find it an annoyance that humanity hasn’t evolved to a place where we can act with less selfishness and rather more compassion on a whole. When I look at today’s problems, it’s the same old thing that you can read about in world history, dating as far back as there is recorded history. But what’s really getting me going right now is the fact that North Americans spend millions of dollars thru donations to non-profit organizations to defend and establish the rights of fellows humans and animals in a country that’s rampant with greedy capitalists and religious zealots. This money could go toward helping out people in other countries that are starving, rendered shelterless by the scourge of warfare, and dying from disease that could be treated if the resources were available. The money could educate people about birth control and sanitation, help to establish medical clinics in impoverished nations. It could even go back into our own country to help and assist rather than be used for warfare. When I think about how much money from the public went to putting Obama in office, it makes me cringe. Money is not the root of any evil. It’s all about how it’s used.
I just need to rant for a moment because I get SO many emails asking for money to defend this, support that, fund the other. After a while, I just wanna gurge.
