New Zealand is a "country of a long white cloud", a country that is very far from us — more than sixteen thousand kilometers from Moscow. What did I know about it? By the time of the trip already a lot.
Absolutely different constellations are visible in the sky, and it is forbidden to import food, and for dirty boots at customs you can be fined; here Peter Jackson made his films "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit"; there are no poisonous animals; here live little birds of kiwi, and formidable Maori-man-eaters dance spooky hack dance.
In general, I already knew about what kind of country it is, and in addition to this, from childhood I wanted to get there, because it is interesting to look at people who go upside down!
We flew to Auckland. Some people consider this city the capital of New Zealand. Perhaps because of the rather famous Sky Tower, and possibly because it is the largest city in the country. But this is rather a business center, and the capital is Wellington, which will be discussed further.
The first night we spent at the campsite, where we lived in a house on wheels. Overnight at the campsite — $ 42 for two and $ 30 for one, regardless of whether to sleep in a camper or under an awning. We spent the night practically on the ocean with a view of the Rangitoto volcano, the youngest "homemade" volcano that erupted about six hundred years ago.
In the center of Auckland, many buildings of glass and concrete, which are adjacent to the colonial architecture, there are traffic jams, and people are rushing about their business.
It is the most energetic, densely populated and expensive city in the country, whose inhabitants sarcastically call themselves JAFA ("Just Another Fucking Aucklander").
On the streets of Auckland you can see the figures of owls. They are differently painted and decorate the city. This is a major charity art project The Big Hoot.
Right in the city center there is an amazing place — Albert Park. The most striking thing about it is the Ombu tree. Huge, sprawling and very unusual to our view.
New Zealanders call themselves Kiwi, just so, with a capital letter. It sounds funny and strange when the store sign says that "only indigenous Kiwis work here."
A kiwi is a small, wingless, not very good seeing bird that you cannot see during the day. Lives only in New Zealand and smells, according to rumors, mushrooms. During the day, the kiwi hides in its burrows, but at night it goes on the warpath. This timid and clumsy, as it is believed, birdie is an excellent fighter, ready to defend its land from other kiwis to the last drop of blood. True, they usually defend their borders with the help of shouts and still struggle not to enter into clashes with rivals.
In the nineteenth century, possums were brought to New Zealand without thinking that there were no predators here before. These shaggy creatures began to multiply and multiply, simultaneously exterminating the population of kiwi, dragging eggs from their nests. Now in the country they are simply hated, poisonous traps are set, they shoot and crush possums on the roads — there are even “Smashed Poss” candies, and children are taught from childhood that the good possum is the dead possum, therefore kids love to play the game "who will throw further the corpse of the possum".
During the First World War, when Great Britain called the New Zealanders to the front, the fighters wore an emblem with a picture of a kiwi bird on their sleeves, and this led to the appearance of a nickname.
And this is how the fruits of kiwi grow. They, unlike the bird, come from China, but the New Zealand breeder A. Ellison, who turned the small and tasteless “Chinese gooseberry” into a tasty berry, decided that the resulting fruit resembled the body of a kiwi bird, and called it: kiwi -fruit.
To be continued... ;)
Camera: OLYMPUS E-M1 MarkII
Sweet photos :) Hope you can post them in higher resolution next time :)
Thank you!
This is Steemit problem (
You can open all photo in new window and delete this code: ?format=match&mode=fit&width=640
This photo is 1100px on a larger size. And also i made links to photos in this resolution in a post.
Wow, thank you! !tip
Thank you too!
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Awesome post - hope you had a good time here
Merry Xmas from a Wellingtonian
Thank you! I like your country!
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Great country isn’t it? 😎
Why don’t you use the #travelfeed tag?😇
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Great! :)
I didn't know about this tag. I try to use it later. Thank you!
Hello @sharker, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Thank you!