N E W Z E A L A N D

 

When in Australia, NEW ZEALAND is not far away... We flew and landed in CHRISTCHURCH, famed ‘Garden City’ and  stayed in ELMS Hotel, sight-seeing Victoria Square,  Hagley Park, the Botanic Gardens, inner-city avenues and spectacular gardens, reading The Press  NZ newspaper....
[ NZ..0ne dollar coin had KIWI image- 2$ flying-bird,  $5 Note had image of Edmond Hillary]......

ANTARCTIC CENTER, located next to Airport, is an exciting place to get real experience of Antarctic conditions of weather, environment,  snow, ice,  Antarctic storm simulation, all under minus zero conditions.
A window to the frozen continent of Antarctica and the South Pole. We saw penguins swimming up, down, reverse and fast like experts in natural conditions, went into the tunnel of ice house, drove the snow car, admiring samples of rock, 300 million years old sandstone exhibits, starfish  and many species of marine life.

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  We drove through the beautiful city to the Botanical gardens, full of exotic trees and flowers and we were particularly attracted by the fully grown tree with many branches almost spread and crawling on the ground.  We had lunch at Little India restaurant, travalled in tram, strolled in cathedral junction, watching portrait painting artists and street performers. We had dinner at Tandori palace.

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 Next day we had a long scenic road travel to QUEENS TOWN, watching long rows of trees trimmed like a wall.  Midway we took a break in a garden Restaurant/Mall, ALPACA, displaying woollen materials, watched a strange animal which looked like a cross breed of camel and goat and continued our journey to picturesque lake TEKAPO and PUKAKI .
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We reached QUEENS TOWN.
12,300 km away from Delhi or 5000 km near south POLE and occupied the lake view terrace room of Kings gate Hotels & Resorts  on the shore of crystal clear Lake Wakatipu  overlooked by majestic mountain range, ad mist dramatic scenes. As a fan of Lord of the Rings I could recognize many of the locations here. No doubt this place, ad mist cloudy high hills, is fit for Queen Victoria.  RIYA's Indian Restaurant was a delight and the 'Queenstown mirror' newspaper was interesting. We were strolling around the beautiful town and lake, watching para fliers.
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 We drove to KAWARU bridge BUNGY Jumping  centre and watched Adventure sports enthusiasts, jumping head down hundreds of feet below the bridge, their feet tied securely to cable, head touching the
water of the wild waters of the river, swinging up and down many times until they land safely in a boat that reaches to collect them. It was thrilling even to watch it.
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We went to ARROW town, famed for its gold mining history and trekking through the river side, we saw shining stones, gems, pebbles, stones and rocks of pristine beauty of bewitching color sprawled all along the stream.  We found some locals hunting for some lucky finds. Some of the pebbles and stones had exotic designs carved out  of running water. Quite a location.
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 The Paradise was really on the top of the hills and we took SKYLINE Gondola cable car to  reach the spot.  While climbing up the steep hill, we enjoyed the most spectacular and thrilling views and from the terrace we looked down below a beautiful town sprawled over hills and lake.  It was refreshing to sit and  drive down through tracks  in sliding cars.  Many para gliders were flying around hills, lake and over the town for hours, like butterflies. Watching from there was like enjoying a dream,  to take memories home. 0nce is never enough, to be in such a place.            
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 Another long drive with similar scenes of trees carved like walls, grazing  sheep. cattle, farm lands and non stop raining we reached the Eglinton Valley, World Heritage site, on the way to MILFORD SOUND, enjoying wonderful views of a wide variety of flora and fauna. New Zealand broke away from ancient landmass called GONDWANALAND 90 millions of years ago, developed into a paradise for birds like weka, kiwi. With no predators around, birds lived on the ground losing their power of flight entirely. 

Under pouring rain, we reached MILFORD SOUND, described by

Rudyard Kipling as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Milford Sound was carved by glaciers during the ice ages, cliffs rising vertically from the dark waters, mountain peaks touching the sky and waterfalls cascading downwards, some as high as 1000 meters. A place full of spectacular natural features with amazing visuals around every corner, breath taking in any weather. It rains often and those water falls multiply with magnificent effect, creating stunning treats for visitors with dozens of temporary water falls.  We watched through the windows, never ending rows of water falls, as if falling from Heavens....strange, unbelievable scene    

We alighted midway in rain, wearing raincoats, crossed a bridge over a frightening water fall, for the most scaring unearthly experience of sightseeing. Later we embarked on MILFORD SOUND RED BOAT cruise to enjoy an intimate  experience of sailing in the WAKATIPU LAKE, watching the CHASM WATERFALL  and uncontrolled water flow pouring from hills on both sides of our cruise. Thank God we returned safe from this weird nature water world.
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 Our flight landed elsewhere in Hamilton and we took bus to ROUTURA. I met a local NZ travelling with us and had a long conversation with him. He remembered serving in Indian Army, stationed in Deolali, retired in England and now settled in NZ. He was happy when I told him  that he looked like C.Reeves the Superman. We stopped midway in Hillary's restaurant. and stayed in SUDIMA HOTEL,at LAKE ROTORUA and dinner at Tanduri Palace restaurant  We attended a Cultural programme of ab origin MAORI,  music and dance, offering and sharing their culture, history, music, language and art. The artists looked like our Nagas, tall, hefty and muscular.

We also visited HAKAREWAREWATANGAOTEOPETAUAAWAHIAO  (The gathering place for the war parties of WAHIAO] saw MAORI Arts and Crafts institute where wood carvers and flax weavers keeping their art alive, and their finished work showcased in the retail gallery as exhibits. The  KIWI house also had exhibits of dress tools weapons of ab origins .
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 It was a weird sight at Whakarewarewa,  one of Rotorua's most popular geothermal sites,  boasting some excellent geothermal activity, with numerous hot springs and pools, known as a Living Thermal Village.  Rotorua is a place of skyrocketing geysers, hot springs and boiling mud pools.This city has one of the world’s most lively fields of geothermal activity and sits squarely on the Rim of Fire, featuring a number of exhilarating mud pools, geysers and sulphur pools.  

      

We saw eruptions of volcanic sulphur springs, smelling the scent of sulphur all around, ground boiling and bubbling with cloud of vapour, frozen volcanic rocks, alarmingly dangerous spot; ---never seen such frightening scenes from close quarters anywhere else.  It reminded me of HELL as described by my granny. If only, you cross the fence, you will reach there. 
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Agro Dome SHEEP shearing  SHOW was quite an action-packed hour of farming entertainment and education with many breeds of wool bearing sheep playing to the gallery. We witnessed  a live sheepshearing demonstration --of shaving off the wool by using electric razor type shearing machine  and the goat quietly allowing its entire body being shred of its coat of wool and emerging out in its ridiculous real shape. It was quite an unusual and amusing sight to see. The Shepperd Hunt away dog was the hero of the show, as they demonstrate their ability to respond to commands and keep those sheep in line....a real monitor of goats, sheep and poultry. In the Agro dome Farm Tour we saw every aspect of wool from production on the farm, through the harvesting process at Shearing Shed and the final stage at the Woolen Mill including spinning, weaving and knitting.  Later we took lunch at BIG APPLE CAFE.
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  WAITOMO GLOWWORM CAVES of Waitomo are 
wonders of nature. The spectacular spiral entrance to Ruakuri Cave and the incredible prehistoric limestone formations and crystal tapestries are marvelous and spectacular. These stalactites, stalagmites and flow stones in pink, white and brown colours were bewitching.  We enjoyed the boat ride under thousands of magical glowworms, unique to New Zealand, and a part of natural history.  We discovered that the ceilings were dotted with the lights of thousands of glowworms. We saw these glow worms quite close, thousands of these tiny creatures radiating their unmistakable luminescent light. An amazing experience, enhanced by our expert guider's informative commentary on the Caves' historical and geological significance. It was like a dream scene of a Bollywood film, sailing in exotic environment.
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  We flew to AUCKLAND and stayed in SPENCER on BYRON HOTEL The room was almost a small flat ,consisting of a hall, bedroom, kitchen with Refrigerator, TV set and a balcony facing the sea shore. Our lunch was at the Palace of India restaurant.  Auckland is known as the City of Sails because the harbour is often dotted with hundreds of yachts.  We went sight-seeing multiple layers of flyovers, bridges and the famous  SKY TOWER, the tallest man-made structure/ building in the southern hemisphere, offering breathtaking views for many kms in every direction. The glass bottom gave shudders and vertigo to many. I managed to walk on that for some time. 
 

Suddenly I saw someone hanging outside the Tower and making frantic actions.  It was the daring SKY JUMP from tower:  a cable controlled base jump, a world-first adventure activity introduced in Auckland. It is jumping like a Movie stunt-man, while attached to a wire, falling very fast from the top of the Tower and then come to a very smooth landing in the Sky City plaza below. It is thrilling even to watch it, leave alone experience doing it actually.
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UNDER WATER WORLD was a Sea Life Aquarium exhibiting marine  species in spectacular habitat displays, including the world's largest Antarctic penguin colony exhibit and amazing underwater viewing
tunnels.  We spent hours watching largest collection of sharks, gigantic stingrays [ poisonous tail], beautiful seahorses, jellyfish , tropical fish, etc.,  Walking through the under water tunnels surrounded by Sharks, stingrays and penguins was unforgettable experience.

We took our lunch at GAZAL hotel- and drove to Mt EDEN, a scoria cone surrounding a suburb in Auckland. The majestic bowl-like crater is very deep, caused by a volcano that erupted from two craters
28,000 years ago.   It is the highest natural point in the whole of Auckland, from where the view of the entire city can be seen.  I went around the border for a long walk. We were told not to enter the crater.   That was the last day of our tour.

Every day was full of fun and adventure.  It is  the most beautiful country I've ever seen. I got the thrill of seeing and experiencing unforgettable moments and incredible spectacles.

                                                  20-12-2012