Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Approach to New Zealand

I have always been fascinated in mountains with snowcaps. Being in a hot tropical country, i experienced seeing it only as an adult during my few travels in temperate climates. But they have been very far from the plane window and disappeared quickly from my view. Going to New Zealand is a different case, as views of the snow caps were there much longer, and i had the delight of my life. It turned out that these are actually glaciers deposited through time. Wikipedia said that 18 glaciers are in the North Island, while 3,155 are in the South Island being closer to the Antarctic.

My eyes and camera are fixed on the window, i kept on clicking until the plane touched land. My soul is silent in awe!

The moment i saw some clearings in between the clouds, my eyes got fixed through the window.


These are fully hard rocks, cleared of any loose particles by the falling snow.


These mountains are incredibly different in color than the rest of the mountains, maybe these are rich in gold. 

 Rivers rise and ebb because of the melting snow and glaciers.

It is amazing that even these rocky mountains have well developed road systems to the other side. I just don't know what these roads are used for, as no signs of habitation are on those mountains. Definitely, no possible agricultural activities will also thrive there. 

As we approach land, i can already zoom in to a particular area. New Zealand is criss-crossed by lots of bodies of water like the above. And those small islands at the middle make the landscape very picturesque and beautiful.

The final approach to the airport in Auckland.

Those wildflowers on these rocky mountain make it look like a landscaped rock, very beautiful as the plane approaches land. I hope to be near it on foot sometime. But eventually, when a lot more wonderful vegetation on land are near, i almost forgot my first hope to go to this place. I will just look at these photos and reminisce my feelings of awe and delight. 

Monday, July 6, 2015

I Am a Tourist at Queenstown Gardens

My photos in New Zealand last December has been long overdue for posting. However, i can't just sit down and screen all those shots, besides it seems like every photo is important that i can't decide which to choose.

My first weekend in NZ was already scheduled for the Milford Sound Cruise, Queenstown, a domestic plane ride away from Auckland. My sister lives in Auckland, she took 2 days leave so we can have at least 4 days to roam around.  I heard that it is one of the most beautiful tourist spots in the world. I am so excited and maybe my sister too, as she will not have gone there yet if not because of me. We were early that Thursday morning, reached Queenstown before lunch. We brought sandwiches so we can eat whenever we feel like it. The Hostel's check-in time is at 1:30 pm so we sat under the big tree at the opposite park and ate our sandwiches. My unacclimatized body feels the cold, but i love the feeling of being so far from the tropics. It is the welcome feeling of being in a foreign country, and i internalized the feeling of being a real tourist.

This is the view of the most picturesque landscape of Queenstown. It looks so clean, tranquil, peaceful and real beautiful. Located at the foreground (not at the back) peninsula above is the Queenstown Gardens, where we spend the first afternoon of our stay in Queenstown. We just walk through the town center then along the water edge to the gate of the gardens. Only a few people go there that time, so we had lovely moments taking photos.

center of Queenstown and major bus stops 

The town center is actually a small one that can be roamed easily for a half day walk. All the major amenities are there including the i-center (information center) or the tourism office. Most of the people in the shops, restaurants and on the streets are tourists, and we did also what tourists do.

  town center taken at the Queenstown Garden on the opposite side of the bay

At the top of the mountain is the other end of the Skyline cable. We also went there on our last day in Queenstown. There are also other sports activities areas on the other side of that mountain top.

  Some areas of the garden has tall pine trees, and we climbed this hill to the flower gardens.

  I love the color of this tree, with the silvery leaves as if it is really frosted with snow.

At the side of that tree is a big rock where this epitaph for South Pole adventurers was erected, the 5 soldiers who reached the Antarctic in 1912 but all perished on their return voyage. 

 Very few of the trees, bushes and flowers in this garden are known to me. They are all temperate species so i am not obliging myself to know them.

 My sister is not like me, fond of taking photos of all plants and flowers. She always waited for me up front and always has to call me to hurry, because i always forget time whenever i am in landscapes like this. I don't forget however to also take her photos.

  Can you see my sister among the rhododendron flowers?

The above pine cones fascinate me, as well as the siquoia tree. It is just my first time to see them.

 These are very lovely but its name also eluded me.

dahlia

The plants above have very interesting hard spiny flowers, i don't know what they are. There are labels somewhere but finding it will slow me more, i need to hurry to navigate more grounds. Remember, we only have a half day here. 

 above and below are some of the individual flowers we saw there


It was my first time to see a lot of peonies, different varieties and colors. Being unfamiliar to me they attracted more of my time. And the hostas, which i included one above in the collage, i also just saw them in temperate country blogs. Oh how i wish we had at least a full day here, i still make a lot of shots. 


Of course we didn't leave this place without a souvenir tourist shot. Other tourists are kind enough to take our photos, and we took theirs in return. It was almost dusk when we returned to our accomodation at the other side of the bay. It was time to look for the restaurant where my sister was gifted with a voucher for 2, turning out to be 2 meals for 2. We claimed 1 of the 2 dinners for 2 at the Irish Restaurant, and then  walked home and sleep. What a lovely hectic first day for me in a foreign land. I am just starting but already telling the Universe that i want to come back!

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Skywatching Again

Those of you who have been browsing or following my posts for so many years are familiar with the scenes through my 5th Floor Window. Yes, you remember right, they are mostly sunsets. But of course, i am at the west side of the building and i don't regret that fact. I am making the most out of it and so far i am very contented from the scenes i see, except for some what we call the price of progress and development. They can be ignored when shot in silhouette. And sometimes i just need not care, just ignore those negative scenes.

We all know that sunsets are like fingerprints or DNA sequences. They change in minutes even at the same viewing point, change through space too. In a 30 minute afternoon, we can produce a lot of sunset scenes. My angle is less than 180 degrees, but i can be contented with that, or else i might not be able to manage otherwise. For this post i will show samples of them through the months of watching, I hope you can feel the enthusiasm i had when taking them. Have a nice evening!


 January

 January

 February

March

April

May

June

night scene in June


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