...NZ has awesome scenery-its a cocktail of North Wales,Lake District,Highlands Of Scotland,Wild Coast Of Australia,Barbadian Beaches,Swiss Alps(with snow!) and then improve this cocktail by 100% and you have NZ!...the downside is it has British Weather -you have not 4 but 10 different seasons here in one bloody day! its aweful! Winter and skiing season just finished and its real cold at night and we have just changed our wardrobe yet again! South Island is few degrres colder than North Island and we will be going there soon but we may spent less time there and more time in North now-will see!
...we are each writing daily diary and it makes interesting reading-reading each others diary!...
...we passsed through an area now known as Hobbiton-where Hobbits village was constructed for Ring Trilogy and is now a tourist attraction-part village still standing...now reading a book called Lord Of The Ring-The Locations and locations are in every part of NZ and its amazing for mad Ring fans like us...soon to see Mount Doom...
NEW ZEALAND 2
...Rotorua-center of North Island and most geothermal active land on earth-below pictures are taken in a area called Wai-O-Tapu(sacred waters) and its the most colourful and diverse volcanic area and has stunning geothermal activity and unforgettable vistas...NZ sits on what is known as Ring Of Fire that circles the globe-its here that the Indian and Australian tectonic plates are colliding deep under our feet and hence makes it so volcanic(in lay mans term!)...it has everything including hot waterfalls and dynamic volcanos complete with steaming and hissing...
...known as Artist's Palette-a panorama of hot and cold pools,and steaming hissing exploding and sizzling earth.An amazing variety of everchanging colours...
...walkway built across steaming earth-exposed minerals gives the colours... many times you are walking through steam as wind direction changes and your glasses and camera gets fogged up and you start bumping in to people...
...mother nature at its best and worst-spectacular vistas...
...colours of every tint were displayed in pools,lakes,steam vents,mineral teraces and even the tracks you walk on...
...huge volcanic craters everywhere-some formed by eruptions,some by internal chasms-all displaying variety of geothermal activity...
...known as Primrose Terrace-the water evaporates leaving silica and various minerals behind and this is deposited in different layers-it was a real stunner...
...volcanic crater -steaming earth-bubbling mud pool at the bottom...
...this was a huge volcanic crater and it was real angry throwing out bits of debris and rotten eggs smell all around-infact this smell is everywhere -the boiling mud pools,hissing water,steaming venting earth etc are everywhere even in the town center,peoples garden,roadside,local park ,golfcourse etc...
...violent and spectacular boiling mud-this one largest in NZ...
...many geysers about both hot and cold, this cold one called Lady Knox Geyser,it erupts once a day at around 10:15am-reaching heights of 20m-other geysers erupts at various times some up to 20 times a day -this was a mighty gushing geyser and normally goes on for around one hour...
...me wearing rainproof incase wind changes direction and I get soaked...this one being a cold geyser hence you are allowed to get close-some are at near boiling point...
...known as Moon Crater- all around us the earth was steaming and hissing as far as your eye can see-a real sizzler-the only safe place was boardwalks...
...cocktail of all sorts...
...walking in to unkown...
...this golfcourse is in the middle of geothermal area -it has hot/cold sprouting geysers, steam venting earth(golfer is just passing closed off steam venting earth),bubbling boiling mud pools,huffing and puffing craters ,hisssing water...
...this village near Rotorua was buried under ash and lava from Tarawera Volcano eruption nearby in 1785-the village was excavated in 1938...155 people remain buried ...
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...walkway built across steaming earth-exposed minerals gives the colours... many times you are walking through steam as wind direction changes and your glasses and camera gets fogged up and you start bumping in to people...
...mother nature at its best and worst-spectacular vistas...
...colours of every tint were displayed in pools,lakes,steam vents,mineral teraces and even the tracks you walk on...
...huge volcanic craters everywhere-some formed by eruptions,some by internal chasms-all displaying variety of geothermal activity...
...known as Primrose Terrace-the water evaporates leaving silica and various minerals behind and this is deposited in different layers-it was a real stunner...
...volcanic crater -steaming earth-bubbling mud pool at the bottom...
...this was a huge volcanic crater and it was real angry throwing out bits of debris and rotten eggs smell all around-infact this smell is everywhere -the boiling mud pools,hissing water,steaming venting earth etc are everywhere even in the town center,peoples garden,roadside,local park ,golfcourse etc...
...violent and spectacular boiling mud-this one largest in NZ...
...many geysers about both hot and cold, this cold one called Lady Knox Geyser,it erupts once a day at around 10:15am-reaching heights of 20m-other geysers erupts at various times some up to 20 times a day -this was a mighty gushing geyser and normally goes on for around one hour...
...me wearing rainproof incase wind changes direction and I get soaked...this one being a cold geyser hence you are allowed to get close-some are at near boiling point...
...known as Moon Crater- all around us the earth was steaming and hissing as far as your eye can see-a real sizzler-the only safe place was boardwalks...
...cocktail of all sorts...
...walking in to unkown...
...this golfcourse is in the middle of geothermal area -it has hot/cold sprouting geysers, steam venting earth(golfer is just passing closed off steam venting earth),bubbling boiling mud pools,huffing and puffing craters ,hisssing water...
...this village near Rotorua was buried under ash and lava from Tarawera Volcano eruption nearby in 1785-the village was excavated in 1938...155 people remain buried ...==========================================================
NEW ZEALAND 1
...while looking for Dolphins to swim with in Bay Of Islands-we came across this island-it was here that Captain Cook first landed as he discovered NZ in 1772-he had to fight the Maoris on this island -Maoris killed and cooked 10 sailors here- but then they all came to some understanding some years latter and Queen Victoria and Maoris signed a Treaty Of Waitangi in 1840(10km from this island)-thus giving Maoris same rights as anyone else in NZ-Today Maoris are a big political force in NZ and are equal partners with the whites-infact many whites follow lots of Maori traditions...and its great to see Maoris and whites living together as absolute equals and whites have such high regard and respect for Maoris way of life and culture...
...another camper picked up from Auckland-165,000km-drives good,Toyota with all mod-cons-includes hot tub!-on the way to Bay Of Islands...
...from Bay Of Islands-on the way to swim with Dolphins in the Pacific Ocean but if they have young babies with them then we cannot swim... cause mum gets restless and thus affecting babies and so on...its a rule...
...Hole In The Rock-wild place this and we even spotted a Humpback Whale swimming with two Dolphins!
...pod of over 50 Dolphins spotted just off the coast and oh yes they had very young babies with them and so swimming with this pod was out of the question-but may be latter on with another pod! hope so!
...this pod was of Dusky Dolphins...
...they were all around us within touching distance and boy they put on a fantastic show for us with all sorts of tricks-flipping-calling out with high pitch voice-it was like watching a circus!
...some of the adults were huge with loads of scars and marks on their body from fights and being chased by sharks...
...amazing ...
...more Dolphins-one in the middle was about 4 weeks old and very active and was a real circus clown...
...they come so close to the boat that you can count scars on the rubbery body...
...another beauty...
...the boat next to us watching Dolphin Show...
...this lot were all adults and were patrolling around the boat and looking out for the young ones-Dolphins mate 5 to 10 times a day and with different partners and we saw couple doing just that-am not allowed to make any other comments ...
...this jumped out of the water right in front of me about 10 feet away and I just clicked the camera as many times as I could and got this great shot...the feeling of seeing this was just phantasmal! real awesome NARESH moment!
...the weather was on and off rain all day- there are some pods that contains up to 500 Dolphins in this part of the world...
...you think you have seen everything -then this happens about 30 feet away-its like watching Dolphin Show in a Florida theme park-except this is wild...
...these two had a one mighty crash-real show off...
...these two were built like nuclear submarine and looked more like sharks then dolphins ...well we were not able to find anyother pod without youngsters -so swimming was off...may be on the South Island with some luck...
========================================================
...inside this big rubber/plastic sphere contains dynamic duo-you've guessed it -its P & V-this two have turned in to adrenaline rush junkies and its contageious- it was rather a cold morning and I had a slight back trouble so I sat this one out-they also quarter fill it with warm water on cold days and it was a cold day-so as you roll down the hill its like being in a spinning washing machine-so said Vedanta - she also said -Dad can I please please go again but this time with you!..This is called ZORBING..and there are different way to Zorb eg you can also strap yourself inside for more spinning and so on...
=========================================================
Greetings from Middle-Earth NEW ZEALAND...8th Oct...departed from Sydney 12:35 and arrived 15:35 Auckland...2hour 20min flight...feels weird cause of short flight and yet 3 hour ahead of Sydney time...in Sydney sunset last night at 6:20 and here at 7:45...must be to do with earth being round or something and we are at one end of the earth dad! said Vedanta as she took a break from reading a book on theory of relativity by Eienstien!...yaa I said that must be it!... I don't know!...first impression was like landing at Gatwick or Heathrow in middle of January...drizzly cold and grey feels like home!...and we are set up for a night in a hotel near the airport owned by Patels and its just like being in a 3 star rundown joint in middle of Old Delhi...at least we pickup our campervan tomorrow and we are off and running,as its colder here we are driving to far north of this North Island to a place called Bay Of Islands we are told its fantastic scenery and parts of Lord Of The Ring Trilogy and King Kong was filmed out there!
Tourism has just rocketed in NZ over the last few years due to Ring Trilogy being made here and other factors and it's gone up from 500,000 a year from 2001 to over 2,500,000 a year now and thus prices here have rocketed too! its 2:80 NZ dollar to a pound...so pound should go a long way but will see...we have to be back in Auckland on 6th November to catch a flight to Santiago Chille South America...so we have 26 clear days to see this volcanic country and we are travelling in our campervan througout our journey...NZ is just bigger than UK thats about 1600km in length but very narrow, they say you are only an hour drive from sea and skiing from any part of NZ so I think it will be a cakewalk compare to our epic journey in Austarlia...by the way we never saw one Aboriginal employed in Australia in 2 months travel...well we saw few Maori working at Auckland airport already and two as immigration officers...so shame on you Aussis ...
...while looking for Dolphins to swim with in Bay Of Islands-we came across this island-it was here that Captain Cook first landed as he discovered NZ in 1772-he had to fight the Maoris on this island -Maoris killed and cooked 10 sailors here- but then they all came to some understanding some years latter and Queen Victoria and Maoris signed a Treaty Of Waitangi in 1840(10km from this island)-thus giving Maoris same rights as anyone else in NZ-Today Maoris are a big political force in NZ and are equal partners with the whites-infact many whites follow lots of Maori traditions...and its great to see Maoris and whites living together as absolute equals and whites have such high regard and respect for Maoris way of life and culture......Captain Cook explored more of the earths surface than anyone else in history-he discovered Pacific and loads more with his ship Endeavour-Cook was killed in Hawaii during a skirmish with the locals in 1779 who had initially greeted him as a Polynesian God but killed him latter when Cook denied that he was a God! Today Cook is looked upon by indigenous people of Pacific as an imperialist villian who introduced disease,dispossession and other ills to the Pacific...but Cook remains the single most significant figure in the shaping of modern Pacific...Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first white man to come to NZ some 150 years before Cook but many Tasman's men were killed and eaten by Maoris that he left but he did give the name New Zealand to this land -Zeeland is a province in Holland and New means Neewe in Dutch...
NZ population is 4.1 million,50 million sheep,15 million cows and 60 millions introdouced Possums by some bloody Aussi and they are real menace to native wildlife and grassland...
...another camper picked up from Auckland-165,000km-drives good,Toyota with all mod-cons-includes hot tub!-on the way to Bay Of Islands...
...from Bay Of Islands-on the way to swim with Dolphins in the Pacific Ocean but if they have young babies with them then we cannot swim... cause mum gets restless and thus affecting babies and so on...its a rule...
...Hole In The Rock-wild place this and we even spotted a Humpback Whale swimming with two Dolphins!
...pod of over 50 Dolphins spotted just off the coast and oh yes they had very young babies with them and so swimming with this pod was out of the question-but may be latter on with another pod! hope so!
...this pod was of Dusky Dolphins...
...they were all around us within touching distance and boy they put on a fantastic show for us with all sorts of tricks-flipping-calling out with high pitch voice-it was like watching a circus!
...some of the adults were huge with loads of scars and marks on their body from fights and being chased by sharks...
...amazing ...
...more Dolphins-one in the middle was about 4 weeks old and very active and was a real circus clown...
...they come so close to the boat that you can count scars on the rubbery body...
...another beauty...
...the boat next to us watching Dolphin Show...
...this lot were all adults and were patrolling around the boat and looking out for the young ones-Dolphins mate 5 to 10 times a day and with different partners and we saw couple doing just that-am not allowed to make any other comments ...
...this jumped out of the water right in front of me about 10 feet away and I just clicked the camera as many times as I could and got this great shot...the feeling of seeing this was just phantasmal! real awesome NARESH moment!
...the weather was on and off rain all day- there are some pods that contains up to 500 Dolphins in this part of the world...
...you think you have seen everything -then this happens about 30 feet away-its like watching Dolphin Show in a Florida theme park-except this is wild...
...these two had a one mighty crash-real show off...
...these two were built like nuclear submarine and looked more like sharks then dolphins ...well we were not able to find anyother pod without youngsters -so swimming was off...may be on the South Island with some luck...========================================================
...inside this big rubber/plastic sphere contains dynamic duo-you've guessed it -its P & V-this two have turned in to adrenaline rush junkies and its contageious- it was rather a cold morning and I had a slight back trouble so I sat this one out-they also quarter fill it with warm water on cold days and it was a cold day-so as you roll down the hill its like being in a spinning washing machine-so said Vedanta - she also said -Dad can I please please go again but this time with you!..This is called ZORBING..and there are different way to Zorb eg you can also strap yourself inside for more spinning and so on...=========================================================
Greetings from Middle-Earth NEW ZEALAND...8th Oct...departed from Sydney 12:35 and arrived 15:35 Auckland...2hour 20min flight...feels weird cause of short flight and yet 3 hour ahead of Sydney time...in Sydney sunset last night at 6:20 and here at 7:45...must be to do with earth being round or something and we are at one end of the earth dad! said Vedanta as she took a break from reading a book on theory of relativity by Eienstien!...yaa I said that must be it!... I don't know!...first impression was like landing at Gatwick or Heathrow in middle of January...drizzly cold and grey feels like home!...and we are set up for a night in a hotel near the airport owned by Patels and its just like being in a 3 star rundown joint in middle of Old Delhi...at least we pickup our campervan tomorrow and we are off and running,as its colder here we are driving to far north of this North Island to a place called Bay Of Islands we are told its fantastic scenery and parts of Lord Of The Ring Trilogy and King Kong was filmed out there!
Tourism has just rocketed in NZ over the last few years due to Ring Trilogy being made here and other factors and it's gone up from 500,000 a year from 2001 to over 2,500,000 a year now and thus prices here have rocketed too! its 2:80 NZ dollar to a pound...so pound should go a long way but will see...we have to be back in Auckland on 6th November to catch a flight to Santiago Chille South America...so we have 26 clear days to see this volcanic country and we are travelling in our campervan througout our journey...NZ is just bigger than UK thats about 1600km in length but very narrow, they say you are only an hour drive from sea and skiing from any part of NZ so I think it will be a cakewalk compare to our epic journey in Austarlia...by the way we never saw one Aboriginal employed in Australia in 2 months travel...well we saw few Maori working at Auckland airport already and two as immigration officers...so shame on you Aussis ...
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