Everything about New Zealand is a bit unusual. The Island Nation has been an isolated landscape for a long stretch of geologic time. The North and South Islands have many things in common, but many are different. Today the North Island is part of the volcanic Rim of Fire; in the central part of the island is the great Rotorua Caldera. The South Island is home to the Alpine Fault, Fiordland, and the towering New Zealand Alps. Let's take a look.
Southern Cross
The last light of day on the upper reaches of Mt. Cecil, across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown, Otago, South Island, New Zealand.
lake wakatipu
Morning off the point of Cape Brett, the northeast corner of the Bay of Islands, North Island. The light is soft, slowly developing. I was looking for the developing glow on the sun-facing rock on the left side; the small window was a bonus. An unsettled sky; the Pacific, well, not settled or pacific.
cape brett
The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are where Queen Victoria's representatives signed the first treaty with the Maori chiefs of Aotearoa (New Zealand). It's an evening walk after the clearing storm. The Paihia back bay is an artist's palette, the colors changing minute-to-minute.
waitangi walk
The south-central part of the North Island is home to the great Rotorua Caldera. Here the building light of early morning is trying to break through both the morning fog and the steam rising from the boiling mud pond. Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe, Lake Rotorua is the heart, but the experience is more like the lungs, you can watch the landscape breath.
caldera morning
Aotearoa: The Land of the Long White Cloud. The great Polynesian navigators looked for the long white cloud in order to discover land as they sailed the wide Pacific. Here the long white cloud lies over the volcanic highlands of the Tongariro country, North Island.
aotearoa
The Wellington Harbour after sunset. The city and great bay are encircled on three sides by mountains, the south end opening on the Cook Strait. I was attracted to the sloop's running lights as reflected on the water surface, each light becoming a string-of-pearls across the gently rippling surface.
safe harbour
I was fortunate to get this one. The late evening sky at Mt. Cook in the central New Zealand Alps is not often this clear. The shadows have already swallowed the upper end of the Lake Pukaki Valley, but the mountain is crystal clear. At 12,218' (3724m) it is the tallest mountain in New Zealand; Sir Edmund Hillary country.
the heart
First light on Mt. Cook, here living up to its nickname: The Cloud-Piercer. The Tasman Sea is only 40 km (25 miles) to the west. It is the direction from whence the weather here at 43.5 degrees south latitude. Much of the time the top is lost in the sky. It's been a couple of brilliant days.
the cloud-piercer
The Southern Alps comprise Fiordland, the home of great U-shaped valleys and towering near-vertical mountain walls created by the last Ice Ages. On the Tasman Sea, the great salt water fiords extend west to the ocean. Fresh water lakes are found on the east side. Here the Mirror Lakes live up to their name.
fiordland
Milford Sound is the northernmost of the southland's collection of fiords. The view here is of the distinctive mountain peak called The Mitre (after a bishop's conical hat). At 5,551' (1692m) it is a formidable guardian of the Sound's entrance. Beyond is the open Tasman Sea.
on the sound
This lovely footbridge is in the Queenstown Gardens, but looks like it could be in The Shire. It's as though Frodo and Samwise will be walking through at any moment. It seems appropriate; elements of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy were filmed in this part of Otago.
in the shire
Sunset over Otago's Lake Wakatipu. The wind is still up, driving the wave onshore. It will drop in a little while. Across the lake, the last light of evening falling on the mountains known as The Remarkables. Indeed.