I had not imagined how impossible beautiful this country is. Since there are hardly any people anywhere, you have most spots and hikes all to yourself, and what a rarity that is nowadays! In the last two weeks I have felt any time I enter a city or bigger town I get a notion of claustrophobia seeping into my mind and want to head out into the wilderness again, how have I managed all this time to live in a big city?
From Mount Cook we travelled southwards to the amazing alpine landscape of the misty mountains, through Mordor land, Isendgard, Pelennor fields... ( sorry but easier for you to imagine it with these "Ring" names).
We stayed at one of the best located towns in the world - Wanaka, and took in the surrounding wonders. Then onwards to the goldmining area around Arrowtown where Arwen (Liv Taylor) escapes in the Ford of Bruinen by managing to flood it whilst leaving the scary Nazgul on the riverbank. Our most southern stop was to be Fiordlands, unfortunately due to avalanches we could not trek the famous Milford so we settled on travelling the Milford sound and hike the Kepler trek and some shorter walks instead.
Seeing so many astonishing sights and experiencing the whole world in such a short period of time sometimes makes me feel like it is almost too much to take in, I have gotten used to waking up in new places every day with something around the corner waiting to shake my senses senses yet again and I wonder: does it really have to stop? How can I come back to my life back home and not crave this existence again to the point of going mad?
Then from the statuesque Fiordlands we travelled up to Queenstown for some adventure and onwards to the glaciers. Hiking the blue toned glacier Franz Joseph was an experience I`ll never forget. The first few hours proved to be a challenge with the weather as it was suddenly snowing and freezing, but somehow I enjoyed it even more for that. Then the sun suddenly appeared and warmed up the limbs and I felt stronger than I have done in a long time, standing on top of aqua blue snow covered ice in the middle of a country far far away. I could not bring the camera as it was too wet, but just follow the link.
Waking up in the middle of the night by a 7.4earthquake made me realize yet again how precious life is and how vulnerable we are. But being scared will not enhance it so better grab all opportunities that come with it.
Same day I found out about the terrible sky diving crash and can only hope that none of the people I saw the evening before or during my trip was in it. So sad.
The world is a book.
Those who don´t travel only read the first page.
Wanaka
Milford Sound
Franz Joseph glacier
1 comments:
just beautiful!
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