Pompey_Paul

Sunsets over Wenderholm national Park





Auckland Sunset





Rangitoto in the background

lapsed kiwi

Here goes with some older photos

View from my mate's back garden over Lake Wanaka:

lapsed kiwi

Suburban Wanaka with the lake in the background

lapsed kiwi

The old man & I windsurfing on a beach on the Bay of Plenty:

lapsed kiwi

Clutha River near Wanaka

shepslady

Very good Biddy but what century are you talking We were all talking about this coming Lions tour

As for the banter it seemed to bother some so we have agreed to stop it but you would have been more than welcome to join in

Franklin

That is such a pretty scene; thank you. Can't get over it. So very pretty, and it seems NZ is full of pretty scenery.

kiwijetpilot

Just wait 'til I get the scanner warmed up later...

shepslady

Punakiki Pancake Rocks West Coast South Island


Sea Kayaking at Cathedral Cove...did this with my family years ago & it was so much fun!


Visited these hot springs every summer with my children when they were teenagers & have so many wonderful memories of The Miranda Hot Pools on the Firth of Thames.

shepslady

Glenorchy near Queenstown.....not too much here but the scenery is amazing!



Lake Hayes near Arrowtown. The reflections in this lake are awesome on a good day!

Biddy

Without doubt the most beautiful country in the world!
God I'm lucky - or will be in a couple of months!

kiwijetpilot

OK here we go, expect a few photos from me tonight:

We start off with a nice Waikanae sunset... the South Island in the background and Mana Island on the left...



... and now a Wellington sunset...



Off to the South Island now, this is Te Anau...



...and this is Lake Tekapo. At the other end of the lake is the glacier that feeds it. The glacial water is the reason for the bright colour of the lake - yes it really is that colour! Note how clear the air is...



This is the spillway at the southern end of Lake Tekapo, it feeds the system of canals that link some Southern lakes and make up our hydroelectric power grid. This spillway is pretty big, over 100 feet across. One day, back when I was young and stupid, we climbed down into the spillway when it was about as full as it is here - the gates that hold the lake back have ladders on them. We then proceeded to raft down the spillway on truck inner tubes. It was pretty scary - but then we were young and stupid!



All the aerial shots from about 10,000 feet in a Piper Cherokee I was flying in those days.

More later...

kiwijetpilot

Some mountain photos:

This is the Chateau, at the foot of Mt Ruapehu. It used to be an insane asylum - it is now a luxury hotel...



This is the view from the Whakapapa skifields on Ruapehu, of Mt Taranaki...




This Mt Ruapehu (left) and Mt Ngaruahoe (right) from Lake Taupo...




This one is Mt Taranaki taken from overhead Wanganui...




More coming...

kiwijetpilot

So... in the South Island now.

This is the bridge over the Clutha, in the town of Alexandra. The old bridge, visible in the background, was an engineering marvel in it's day. Clutha is gaelic for Clyde (as in the river, Glasgow, Scotland).



This is a NZ parrot, known as a kea. These birds are very friendly and will eat from your hand - this one just nicked a barley sugar, and is sitting on the roof of my car. They will also strip the rubber from windscreen wipers, and steal anything from your campsite that is not physically nailed down! As you can see, they are mainly green, but when they fly, you can see that the underside of their wings is a bright red-orange. Very cool.



This is Milford Sound. Those little specks at the base of the cliff are rather large cruise boats. Some of these cliffs go up vertically for over 5000 feet. They also go vertically down into the water for many hundreds of feet.



This is the base of that cliff. The horizontal score marks are where the glacier gouged the rock on the way down to the sea, about the last ice age. Amazing, huh?



More later... can we have this "stickied" again mods? How about it?

kiwijetpilot

More South Island...

This first one is the road alongside the Buller river as it runs through the Buller Gorge...



This is the Pelorus River. There is a bridge just to the left, you can jump off it into the river - the bridge is high, but the river is very deep...



This the Haast River, in the Haast Pass. Yes, it is very cold indeed...



...and this is looking into the valley of the Franz Josef glacier. The white bits at the bottom right are blocks of ice melting to feed the river.



Right, somebody elses turn...