The long white cloud

I've been around the world and visited some truly amazing places. Travel has provided some of the most valuable of moments, experiences and memories and rarely a day goes by in which I do not think about a place I've been and wish to go back, or to travel to new places. I live for experiences, not things, and travel has certainly furnished me with so many and varied memories indeed - As a nature-lover many of those places have been natural places because it's where I feel most comfortable.

This week, for the #weekend-engagement posting topics WE78, I asked people to post about the natural world with the expectation people would share a few places they'd been and I could take a look at them and feel like I'm travelling despite not being allowed to currently do to government control measures, fear and media-hype.

In thinking about the places I've been, the natural places, there's so many I could list however it's difficult to single one out as the best or most favoured as they all have different attributes and mean different things to me. However there's one place I went to recently that I'll single out today because it was one of the places that simply blew me away and surprised me with its beauty and feel.

The tiny country of New Zealand sits to the east of Australia, where I live, and a little lower. I say tiny because compared to my country it is a little fly speck of a place and I've spent my life ignoring it and making fun of its inhabitants, the New Zealander's. They're easy targets and Australian's and New Zealanders have a (friendly) rivalry which boils over to some truly brutal insults at times...But it's all in good humour. You'd have to be an Aussie or a Kiwi to understand the dynamic.

So, I finally decided to go over there for a look and decided that the south island would be the best place as only twenty five percent of the countries four million people live there and that suits me fine; less people.

It's called Aotearoa in the Maori language which has a few different translations but one of the popular ones is long white cloud and when one goes to New Zealand it makes perfect sense. Weather patterns create them across the skies and it just works.

It's a land of high mountain peaks, lakes and rivers, volcano's, dense forest, deep valleys, fjords and glaciers, open fields, rugged coast lines, snow and ice. It's simply stunning.

Whilst there I explored much of the south island including a very cool helicopter expedition to Mt Earnslaw Burn, a glacier-formed valley, which you can see in images above. The helicopter dropped down to the valley floor and shut down, we were the only ones there because its so remote and inaccessible...It felt like I'd been transported back in time - It was so quiet and it brought me a deep sense of peace. It's one of my fondest travel memories and I intend to go back one day.

Everywhere one looks is a postcard image and with my terrible photography skills I tried to capture some. Below is Milford Sound, Tunnel Beach, random fields and the Moeraki Boulders.

In my wanderings around the south island I was struck by the contrasts; it seemed wherever one looked there was something different and beautiful.

The lush forest below was one such place. I stopped to take a look at a camping ground and wandered into this very lush and moist forest beside it and decided to explore a little deeper.

It seemed prehistoric to me and I wouldn't have been surprised to see a dinosaur pop out from behind a tree; a Velociraptor would have been cool. The paths led me to an alpine lake and me being the curious fellow I am I had to taste the water. It tasted like water, clear, cold and fresh...And a little bit like whatever the animals of the area did in the water. I survived though and am glad I tasted those waters...It sort of connects me to the moment you know?

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to New Zealand but I have to admit that I regret not travelling there sooner.

It takes well less than a day of flying to get there from my city in Australia and offers so much of interest. I think the coolest part for me is how different it is from Australia; it's totally different in every way. It sort of gave me the feel I was in Europe and whilst it's completely different to Europe it's often called little Switzerland. I've been to Switzerland and I have to agree somewhat.

One of the questions for the #weekend-engagement posting topics this week was where would you go if you could take a two week vacation right now and without a doubt I'd say New Zealand...I didn't get enough of it last time, only saw a snippet, and I want to see more of the natural beauty found in the land of the long white cloud.

Thanks for taking a skim of my pictures folks, I hope you're having a great weekend and doing something that makes you smile.