Is a country about the size of the UK but with only a fraction of the people. This makes it a country for those who like space, for themselves. In their homes, and the land around them. It's roughly the shape of Italy, but the other way up. The boot, and the foot, you know. The coastline is truly magnificent. Composed of endless bays, and white sandy beaches. With an assortment of cliff hights, from high, and rugged, to flat, and grassy. There are bays for every taste. Shallow, and quiet, deep shelving, and rough, flat, and calm, surf beaches, boaty beaches, all.....are walking beaches. A joy to amble along by the side of the sea, or in the sea. Many beaches, backed by sand dunes, most now protected to stop further erosion. It's a beautiful country, that deserves looking after.
It can be quite an incestuous country, in that you are never far form someone you know. It's never surprising to see friends walk by, or meet people who know the same people as you. Many miles away from home. Twenty years ago, everyone knew almost everyone else, or perhaps just coming out of that a little now. I think they say each person is only three places removed, from everyone else. Of course that's before the latest influx of Asian immigrants. They seem to like it here a great deal. As they should, as the kiwis are an affable race, and the country has something for everyone.
There are the bay of islands to the North, a truly beautiful attraction. Then, the ski fields of Queenstown to the south. With about everything in between. Walks, of every description, and for those more adventurous types, New Zealand has become the adventure capital. Bungy jumps, para gliding, heli skiing, jet boats, even a dive from sky tower in Auckland.
The Moiri culture, is a great part of the history of the country, of course. They were the earliest of the immigrants too, like the later settlers. They are essentially polynesian. Having headed out to sea, and discovered New Zealand, and it's original indigenous peoples. Which, according to history, did not long survive the influx of a new people. They are not like the Aborigine of Australia, who really have been there for four million, or more years. The first settlers, for sure. Their culture is alive, and well at a family level in the ..., and as a tourist attraction. The songs, inspiring, or sometimes frightening, like the Hakka. The dances, and song tunes mostly of Polynesian extraction. These roots go deep, and mix now, with the culture of the later European migrants.
Even in town here, as I sit in Auckland, you have the old and beautiful churches, mixed with the new apartment buildings, and the needle like sky tower casino. Which is much more than that. It is a hotel, a meeting place, a collection of cafes, bars, and restaurants, and shows. The streets are planted with avenues of pale green, lacy trees, set against the cream, stonework of the older buildings. The pavements are wide in most places, and the shops colourful. If you walk down to the harbour, where you can catch boats to Waiheke island, Devonport, or even whale watching. As a culture, it remains quite laid back, interesting even for its mangled vowels. The whole town sits on sevn volcanos. None of which are active, we hope. All the streets though, are at a steep angle. Hardly anything is on the flat. Good for getting fit, or keeping fit.
If you are a film buff, you will have seen the Peter Jackson films of the Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, there the wonderful photography of the what they call Middle Earth, will show you something of the magic of the countryside in New Zealand.
If you have not already done so, you need to visit, you will never forget it, or regret it.
+Fisherman Foundation and all fishermen. This is the country for fishing.
+tramping tracks walking tracks
+Moiri culture
+Moiri culture
A look at New Zealand
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