Gratuitous Photos of New Zealand

I blogged about our trip to the Islands of New Zealand here, (now is when you would click on the "here" and be whisked magically to my post about New Zealand on my other blog: "Notes From a (Mostly) Dry Place"), but was unable to upload very many pics as the Internet will suck your wallet dry when you're Under Down Under.  So, now, I present some of my fav images of New Zealand.  [Steve and Bri took pics, too, which I will post *soon* - no, really, I will!]

Boat At the National Maritime Museum in Auckland.

Rigging on the Ted Ashby: a Gaff-Rigged Ketch we sailed out on the harbor from the National Maritime Museum.  It's not fast, as it has a flattened keel so that it can readily run aground in shallower waters to offload things such as sheep.  (The keel doesn't make it slow - what makes it slow is that with a flattened keel if it goes fast it goes over! Bye bye, sheep!)

The Red Fence along Quay (pronounced 'kay'), Street in Auckland.  The Royal Family would disembark behind this fence when sailing (or whatever), into the bay.

Sunset on Quay Street in Auckland.

I just thought this was funny - I mean, it's not like there were two lanes to start with.  (On our way to the Whatipu Scientific Reserve on the West Coast of the North Island.)

The venerable Kauri tree: One of the oldest living things on the planet. A conifer, the Kauri can live well in excess of 600 years.  West Coast of the North Island.

Black sand and shell in the Whatipu Scientific Reserve.

Church of the Good Shepherd on the shore of Lake Tekapo. We stopped here on our way from Christchurch to Twizel on the South Island.

Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park on the South Island.  The mountains in this area are rugged and glaciated.  It was quite cold and the wind was howling.  That didn't stop us from hiking to Hooker Glacier Lake in Hooker Valley, as well as Tasman Valley to View Tasman Glacier - the largest glacier in New Zealand. I pretty much wore every warm thing I brought with me, (tights beneath long underwear beneath slacks beneath rain pants and about eight layers on top, plus scarf, hat, gloves, raincoat...), and looked like the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man.  Peeing was not easy.

View out the door of a hut along the way to Hooker Valley.  I don't know if you can tell, but the wind is whipping the grasses.  The hut provided a welcome respite as well as a nice place to leave graffiti.

Tasman Glacier.  It's at the head of the lake and is covered in sediment, so it doesn't look terribly impressive although it is the largest glacier in NZ.  That's a real iceburg floating in the lake formed from the meltwater of the glacier.  The lateral and terminal moraines were cool.

This is an area called "Castle Rocks" west of Christchurch.  We were driving back towards Greymouth from Twizel.  It is so pastoral I wanted to burst into song like Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music!"  I controlled myself but it wasn't easy.

This is "The Blowhole" at Punakaiki.  It's actually quite cool and the photo does not do it justice.  This is along the west coast of the South Island between Greymouth and Westport.  The surf would kind of surge along and then, whoosh! A huge wave would slosh through the blowhole.  Somewhere I have a video of it which I may (or may not) post to YouTube.  I suspect, there is one probably already out there, somewhere, if you really, really want to see it do its thing.

Wooden bench crafted of old oak from a wine barrel and held together with "trunnels" (tree nails).  The craftsman was making the trunnels at the Farmer's Market in Nelson.  It was fascinating to watch and learn how it's done. I really, really, wanted one of his benches.  I'll bet I could pay a small fortune for one in Napa, though.

I'm actually photographing plants that are several feet down in the clearest water on earth at Te Waikoro Pupu Springs.  This was a beautiful and peaceful place.  The unique geology of the area provides for the discharge of the second largest and clearest freshwater spring on the planet (the largest is under the antarctic ice sheet - which I believe I may have mentioned before - but there is nothing like redundancy to make something stick in your head - either that or a naughty rhyme and I'll bet with a name like, "Pupu," some of my friends could come up with all kinds of creative mnemonics!).

This is a tiny part of Golden Bay near Takaka on the South Island.  We were going to try for dinner at the Mussel Inn, but they were not yet serving, so we strolled here for a bit before dining at the "Dangerous Kitchen" in Takaka.  I drove home - my first time driving in New Zealand.  [And who wouldn't like eating at some place in Takaka called the Dangerous Kitchen?  Seriously?]

Shell on the dark sands of Golden Bay.

Sunset on Golden Bay.

Split Apple Rock.  We saw this from the water taxi that took us from Marahau to Bark Bay in Abel Tasman National Park.  We hiked from Bark Bay to Torrent Bay, where the water taxi collected us and took us to meet our kayak guide, Lucky.  We had lunch on the beach and then paddled the sea kayaks back to Marahau.  That was pretty cool.  I had the back seat and got to steer (you work the rudder with your feet).  I'd like to say I was good at it, but that might be a slight exaggeration.  It's harder than it looks to synchronize paddling with the person in the front and my feet kept getting confused over "left" and "right."  You'd think I'd have that ironed out by this time in my life.

On the way back to Marahau, we paddled around Adele's Island and saw seal pups playing along the shore.  They were adorable!  Can you see them looking at me from behind the rocks?  Somewhere on my computer I have a video of that, too.

Barstools at a pub in Wellington on the North Island (capitol city of New Zealand).  I'd like to think that the holes in the center of each stool are for "decorative" purposes.

The Devil's Staircase on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.  It was actually pretty nice.  The steps were about like a regular staircase and the rest of the trail was quite smooth.  It was steep but all-in-all not bad.

Red Crater above the Emerald Lakes on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This is an active area and there were numerous steaming vents about the area.  From the ridge between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe one can see both the east coast and the west coast of the North Island.

This is Huta Falls, at the headwaters of the Waikato River, which is the longest river in New Zealand.  We stopped here on our way from Marahau to Auckland and along the way had, quite possibly, the worst cup of coffee in the entire country.  At this point, the "long blacks" were starting to take their toll on my innards.  I was treating them like "regular" US of A coffees, and having something like three or four a day.  Bad idea. 

And, so, off to Australia!  I'll be blogging that on "Notes From a (Mostly) Dry Place," [eventually - I've got Sydney in mind after the blog I've already completed on toilet flushing], 'cause, well, it is mostly dry, unless it's the wet and then it's really, really wet!