December 2012 thru May 2013
“No fair New Zealand!” was a phrase we’ve uttered many times as we’d arrive at yet another place of staggering beauty. “Save some pretty for other countries!” we’d demand. Sometimes just driving along, we’d say, “Stop it; stop it this instant! We can’t take any more!” A person can only take so much scenic beauty before their eyes need a rest! Sometimes the nonstop beauty gets so overwhelming it’s like being assaulted by feathers.
New Zealand is definitely nature’s combination plate, encompassing vegetation and terrain from around the world. We used to joke: What plants does New Zealand have? All of them! New Zealand is like a combination of everyplace, yet it looks like no place else. What’s amazing is the unusual combinations of plants and landscape never look strange or haphazard–they always work.
If I were to make up a legend about the creation of New Zealand, I’d say God finished the rest of the Earth first and ended up with leftover bits from everywhere. He then combined these bits to create the final masterwork that is New Zealand. Of course such a masterwork needs to be properly lit, so a sky was created with special clouds that would filter the sunlight into a soft warm light and create shadows on the landscape for drama. Aotearoa is the Maori word for New Zealand and means “the land of the long white cloud.” It’s very fitting.
It may be apparent by now that we have fallen in love with this beautiful country. The warm and wonderful people, the amazing food and wine, and the laid-back lifestyle would be reason enough to make this place worth visiting. The astonishing beauty of the landscape is quite a bonus.
By now we’d spent six months here, but there was so much to see both by land and by sea that we felt we’d barely scratched the surface. We’d pretty much seen only the north half of the north island, and there was never a question that we’d come back to see more of this fantastic country. New Zealand felt like a second home to us and we looked forward to returning for the December ’13 – May ’14 cruising season.
Below is a gallery of random pictures from our time here, in no particular order. They aren’t from our best pictures; they are the final leftovers that never even made the last-chance galleries. But all together this strange combination of pictures makes a fitting collage for the season. As always click to enlarge and scroll. –Cyndi
