New Zealand

Sailing towards Auckland, Dec 08

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:37:01 GMT

Sailing towards Auckland, Dec 08

Who would have thought that we're summer sailing? Although it's December, here in NZ, is beginning of summer. It's a big difference from sailing through hot and sticky Pacific islands. From left Franco, Marco, Gaby and Andrea. Photo taken by Dana.

Wanaka

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:25:36 GMT

Wanaka

Wanaka - another great location for outdoor activities with lake and mountains nearby. What a great view we had from our backpacker hostel!

Milford Sound

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:23:24 GMT

Milford Sound

Well, well! Aren't we lucky?! We woke up into a sunny day and stunning views. The 119km road that connects Milford Sound with Te Anau (jumping off point to Fiordlands) is the most scenic road and offers many side walks and natural attractions.... I loved the walk to Key Summit, who wouldn't with this weather?!, but unfortunately run out of batteries for my camera :(

View from Mt Roy track

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:18:14 GMT

View from Mt Roy track

No comment ;)

Mt Cook National Park

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:15:19 GMT

Mt Cook National Park

What a treat! In the background some of the highest peaks of NZ, ugly grey pieces of Tasman glacier floating in the Terminal Lake and one of the three Blue Lakes (more green than blue these days).

Lupins

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:11:16 GMT

Lupins

These are my favorite flowers...

Lake Pukeki

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:07:47 GMT

Lake Pukeki

Lake Pukeki like Lake Tekapo offerring amazing colours. The Southern Alps in the background....

Queenstown

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:06:21 GMT

Queenstown

The view from the Gondola! This town is full of young people and adrenaline is running high. Queenstown is outdoor adventure capital! Kawarau Bridge, 23km from the town, became the world's first commetcial bungy site in 1988. I had 24 hour stomach bug so wasn't feeling up to anything. Andrea tried paragliding but was disappointed somehow!

Castle Hill

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:58:55 GMT

Castle Hill

On the way to Arthur's Pass we came across this limestone... picturesque and very inviting spot.

Arthur's Pass National Park

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:53:42 GMT

Arthur's Pass National Park

I try to show the diversity of nature through my pictures... just driving through the little towns, from east to west was such a pleasing exercise for our eyes!

Akaroa, Jan 09

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:47:22 GMT

Akaroa, Jan 09

The historic town of Akaroa is the site of the country's first French settlement. The drive there was absolutely beautiful as this picture shows.

Infamous Kea

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:12:22 GMT

Infamous Kea

Kea - fearless and very inquisitive green parrot with bright red underwings. They like hanging out near car park where they surprise visitors who feed them although we're discouraged to do so by many information leaflets... This one in particular was very fearless; jumped on our rear view mirror and waited for us to feed her! (we didn't )

Milford Sound, Jan 09

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:07:15 GMT

Milford Sound, Jan 09

Downpours or cloudy days are not uncommon in this part of the world ( the average rainfall is 6m). This glorious collage of undisturbed mountain rimmed fiords, filled with high cliffs and deep water calm is full of waterfalls especially on rainy days. Almost forgot to mentioned the other menace of Fiordland: sandflies. As it rained when we visited, we weren't disturbed much by this nasty little biting insects.

Lake Tekapo, Jan 09

chiwis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:47:28 GMT

Lake Tekapo, Jan 09

This is probably the best picture I have of the lake's amazing colour. This colour is due to "rock flour" (sediment) in the water that was created when the lake's basin was gouged out by glacier moving across the land's surface. With rock on rock action the fine particles ended up in the lake's water giving it a milky quality.

Seal

chiwis — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:25:55 GMT

Seal

Close and personal

chiwis — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:25:21 GMT

Close and personal

Andrea is trying to get very close to the seals! We were driving from Nelson back to Christchurch and spotted this colony (counted around 25 of seals) next to the road.

Farewell spit

chiwis — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:23:17 GMT

Farewell spit

Franco is enjoying his holiday!

Near Farewell Spit

chiwis — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:22:30 GMT

Near Farewell Spit

What's up there?!

Near Farewell Spit

chiwis — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:21:58 GMT

Near Farewell Spit

This place is a part of 26 km beach with huge crescent-shaped sand dunes, from where you get panoramic views of the Farewell Spit (a wetland of international importance and a renowned bird sanctuary). Sun was very strong and sand very hot and we were quite tired from our long walk and quiet hungry - our lunch was in the car;)

Franz Joseph glacier

chiwis — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:19:57 GMT

Franz Joseph glacier

This photo was taken by Dana. She went to the glacier herself and with a group of other people they went for a guided walk on top. Franz Josef Glacier is a very famous a major attraction in this country. And once again Kiwis take good care of their visitors - they take you there by bus/helicopter if you don't want to drive yourself, you find accommodation according to your budget and all you need to explore another beautiful part of NZ.