Thursday, October 7, 2010

Napier, Nature, Never-Ending

And here is your introduction in a nutshell to some parts of the North Island:


Waterfalls like these were the result of me following random signs that said "waterfall". Generally it included a lengthy drive down a gravel road, a nice little hike and then a waterfall in the middle of nowhere, enjoying it totally on my own. Wonderful.



Cute translucent gecko


Went to a gumdigger's farm. Only place in the world with wood that's super super old that isn't petrified.. Usually it's petrified but because this area is all sand, the wood stayed in tact. So gumdigger's came and then they made resin and other things from it. Interesting. Learned a lot about something I knew absolutely nothing about. Also learned that gumboots originated in NZ. Or so I'm told.



90 Mile Beach. Very fun to drive on the beach at 90 km/hr :)


Massive Kauri tree that was turned into a huge staircase


I love all the different trees and mosses






This was a natural bridge i walked to. For some reason I didn't post the picture of the upper part of it but it was really cool. For some moments while under it, I thought about what would happen if it suddenly collapsed. Thankfully it didn't.




I bonded with some cows after getting my shoes quite dirty in their runny and mucky field


Some more mystery waterfalls I was lucky enough to find.


Original plane door on the vietnam fighter plane that i stayed in for 2 nights!


My dirty shoes. This was actually when they were still clean. Later on you couldn't even see any white. They are probably residing in an NZ garbage dump somewhere. I miss them. But then again, they dug into and cut my right heel open, so I don't miss them THAT much.


When I first pulled up my thought was "seriously, this is the bathroom?" Thankfully there was one inside too so I didn't have to use this one.


Hobbit Hotel!


Ferry hotel!


New Zealand extinct endemic killer unicorn rabbit



Possum! They're much cuter down under than in North America..


Helping shear a sheep


Kiwi! I was surprised at how big they were!


Smashed glass in the front of the pub after the hold-up!


I love the terracettes in the hills. They are created over many years of animals walking around the hill to get up (since it's too steep to go straight up)



LOVE the rolling green hills



And random very narrow one way tunnels through the mountains...


And people putting hides on their fences to show off their catches


And colourful plants!


And stunning beaches!




































































And rainbows positioned perfectly for my photo!



And MASSIVE majestic Kauri trees




Siamese Kauri trees




















That's all for now! If I muster up the drive, I will post a few more random ones from the point and shoot! Hope you've enjoyed the tour though! And the fact that it's past 2:00am and I'm still up would be proof that I suck at getting over jet lag and any love of going to bed early from holidays is gone.

1 comment:

Elsie said...

Thanks for the lovely tour, from beautiful waterfalls to killer unicorn rabbit, lol.