Thursday, December 28, 2006

Aotearoa- Land of the Long White Cloud (Part 1)

"Aotearoa" is the Maori name for New Zealand and it means the "Land of Long White Cloud". The country is beautiful and really is a place that should be visited. Yogi, Yiling and me had a short trip of 12 days to NZ...=)...someplace I would never forget, I reckon...shall put some pics on here...and you guys enjoy....

These 2 pictures were taken on the way back to Christchurch on Day 11. The weather wasn't pretty as you can see from the grey clouds...but well the snow-capped mountains still seemed majestic right? Took the trees on purpose in the foreground, not too sure if they are alpine trees though...=)






Here is the "Sea spray" or "Putai" in Maori at the Paparoa National Park near Greymouth. Notice the rocks at the background? These are the Punakaiki Pancake rocks in NZ, look at how the layers of sandstone stack upon one another. The water that gives off the spray comes from the Tasman Sea, one of the fiercest waters in the world.


This is a picture of Franz Josef Glacier of Westland National Park. Can you imagined that we climbed the glacier? Of course not to the top, it would take 4 whole days and big guts to do it mannn....=P


This is the town of Queenstown, better known as the adventure city of the world where bungy jumping originated. We didn't try bungy, but well we attempted to white water raft though...ha+

Lake Wakatipu, the third largest lake in New Zealand, with the Remarkable Ranges in the background. The mountains are part of the Southern Alps. See if you can spot a slight difference in the colour of the mountains; it is this change in colour as the sun shone on the ranges that first gave them their name.

Milford Sound- where we kayaked on Day 5, located near Queenstown. It's been long since I paddled, so shiok!!