Flight safety card from the Quantas flight to NZ. I just thought the Furby was funny. It certainly dates it, doesn't it?
View from the airplane. (Taken by my mother in law.)
The first inkling we had about the NZ penchant for large sculptures in their towns. This is right south of Auckland.
The area around Lake Taupo, as we drive by on the way southward.
View out the window as we drive a stretch of the Desert Road, east of the Tongariro National Park, on our way south. Not a true desert, as can be seen from the rain clouds.
The city of Wellington, taken from the car driving in from the north side of town.
Another shot of the city of Wellington.
Wellington receeding in the background as we take the ferry from the North Island to the South Island, crossing the Cook Strait.
The North Island as seen from the Cook Strait.
Sheep being transported across the Cook Strait on the ferry. We thought they looked like they might jump out any minute.
The South Island greeting us on the other side of the Cook Strait.
Traveling along the ferry route among the outer islands on our way to the ferry pier at Picton.
More pictures along the ferry route.
Strange clock tower in the town of Nelson, where we spent a few days.
View over a valley close to Nelson on the South Island.
The path to Harwood's Hole, a huge sinkhole.
Hole-y rock!
An Ent-like tree in the forest on the path to Harwood's Hole. Supposedly one of the locations for Lord of the Rings filming.
Hedges among the vineyards in the Marlborough region of the South Island.
On a long swingbridge, trying not to look at the rushing water below.
Pancake rocks at Punakaiki.
From the road through the Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass, with ubiquitous lupins (flowers) in the foreground.
Sir Edmund Hillary (of first-up-Everest fame), statue outside The Hermitage, looking at Mount Cook. The mountain in the background is Mt. Sefton.
Mount Cook, as seen from the hill above the chalet where we were staying.
The Hermitage Hotel itself, our chalets are a little to the left.
My duck friend, who followed me around for a while one day, and who sat on the stump outside our chalet door every morning.
Windblown snow obscuring the top of Mt Sefton. Note the glacier in the lower right corner.
Walking the Hooker Valley track up to the Hooker Lake, a glacier lake in the shadow of Mt Cook.
Panorama view from Kea Point. Mount Sefton on the left, Mount Cook in the clouds in the center.
Hooker Lake, the terminal lake for the Hooker Glacier, which can be seen under the rocky debris straight ahead.
This is one of the “Blue Lakes” near the Tasman Glacier, east of Mt Cook. The greenish blue color is caused by suspended particles in the water, basically rock flour that was created as part of the glacier grinding rocks together.
Another of the “Blue Lakes”.
Icebergs that have broken off the Tasman Glacier, now floating in the terminal Tasman Lake.
View from high on top of the lateral moraine for the Tasman Glacier, straight ahead, which is receding and leaving the terminal lake and lots of debris behind.
Guestbook page from The Hermitage, with Sir Edmund Hillary's signature from 2003, when they dedicated the statue of him.
The area around Twizel, not that far from Mt Cook. The red tussock fields around the town was used to film the Pelennor Fields.
View over Lake Pukaki towards the Southern Alps.
View over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, with The Remarkables showing in the background.
The Canyon Swing platform, over the Shotout Canyon north of Queenstown. I can't believe I jumped off it... TWICE!! :)
Me, swinging at the bottom of the line after jumping off the first time.
View of the road from Queenstown to Glenorchy, where we were staying. Below to the left is Ithilien.
Taking a break from the outdoorsy stuff, playing minigolf in Queenstown.
Todd, the very friendly cat living at the backpacker's in Glenorchy. He liked us, and slept in our room each night.
WWI and WWII memorial in Glenorchy
A caravan standing in the backyard at the backpacker's in Glenorchy. Hm... nice bloody handprint!
An evil gull...
Taking a walk around Glenorchy.
From the same walk, playing with my new camera, a function that allows you to only show one color. Turned out pretty good.
The town and lake of Te Anau, a base for me for a couple of days.
The beginning of my day trip to the Doubtful Sound in the Fiordlands National Park. This is from a boat on Lake Manapouri. I rode the bus, then a boat, then a bus, then the cruise on the Sound, then back again. It's one of the most undeveloped areas in NZ.
Having come over that pass in a bus, we are now on the boat going for a cruise in Doubtful Sound.
Luckily for us, we got to see some of the local dolphins. One of them even came nosing around the boat.
There were lots of dolphins, all around the boat!
This is from the boat almost out in the Tasman Sea. The weather was so nice, we actually went out into the ocean in our little boat. The captain said he hadn't done that in months.
Rock called Hares Ears, right at the entrance to Doubtful Sound.
A seal colony lives on one of the small, rocky islands right at the entrance to the Sound.
More Doubtful Sound pics...
It was an amazing day, no pictures can do it justice.
Pardon the blurry pic, but this deserved mentioning. These guys were way out on the water in the Sound, in what looked to be a very flimsy craft... Apparently it's an adventure canoing thing, but I was glad I wasn't one of them!
This is Helena Falls, right at the innermost part of the Sound. You see the darker water flowing out into the ocean from the Manapouri Power Station in the middle of the pic.
A last goodbye to Doubtful Sound, from the top of the pass going back to Lake Manapouri.
The vegetation here consisted mainly of these amazing, moss covered trees.
As part of our tour, we stopped off at the Manapouri Power Station, which was kind of cool, driving in this tunnel under the mountain. It is the largest hydro power station in NZ.
The town of Manapouri, as seen from the lake. Not a bad place to live...
View of the city of Dunedin along the east coast.
A normal NZ pasture, with sheep!
The path to Tunnel Beach, outside Dunedin. Supposedly, a rich man tunneled through the rock so that his wife and daugthers could get to the nice beach below.
Tunnel Beach, a very cool place.
The tunnel that gives Tunnel Beach its name.
Rose from the Botanical Garden in Dunedin
The Eye of Sauron in a tree at the Dunedin Botanical Gardens.
The Moeraki Boulders on the east coast, not living up to their reputation as a scenic spot to visit.
NZ fur seals at the Ohau Point seal colony, north of Kaikoura on the east coast.
The sky over our hotel in Blenheim.
Back on the North Island, in the area around Taupo, this is the Lady Knox Geyser at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland
The Champange Pool at Wai-O-Tapo, too much steam to really see it.
An amazing color for this Wai-O-Tapo pool.
Sheep-shearing at the Agrodome! Radical!
A bit grainy because it's zoomed far in (and my flash isn't great, so I had to lighten it a bit), but the Agrodome show ended with dogs running on the sheep. Very weird.
We went Zorbing in Rotorua too. Jump into a big plastic ball, get water poured over you, and then roll down the hill. Who ever thought this up? Seriously! It was fun though.
This is very much what the North Island looks like. Grass and lots of sheep!!
Black swans on Lake Taupo. Very pretty.
Mt. Ruapehu, an active volcano, in the Tongariro National Park
We took the lift up at Whakapapa ski area, much easier than climbing!
The terrain was not very welcoming, which is why they filmed scenes from Mordor here!
In the foothills of the mountain we found this nice waterfall.
We never saw any kiwis, but the signs are fun!
This is the Tongariro National Park again, from a distance. Mt Ngauruhoe (AKA Mount Doom) is on the left, with Mt Ruapehu, where the ski lift was, on the right.
Again, NZ towns and their statues! This is the ”sheep shearing capital“ of NZ, the town of Te Kuiti.
A beautiful NZ landscape, a farewell to NZ as we were headed towards the airport at this point.
We managed to take a quick trip through Auckland on the way to the airport. This is taken from the harbor bridge, by my mother-in-law, through the window of the car.
I'll end with some up-close pics of flowers, as I was trying out my digital macro capabilities on the new camera. They came out pretty good!
Random pretty plants...
Cool moss
And a cool type of fern.
