We had wonderful experience travelling through New Zealand in our previous land trips. This time, my wife and I took a cruise from Sydney to see its beautiful South and North islands.
The cruise sailed across the Tasman Sea in two days. We did not see a single boat for these two days as we were not sailing along the sea trade route. In the early morning, we finally arrived Fiordland in the South. This was what we saw.
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| (High mountain shut up from the sea with hanging white cloud) |
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| (Beautiful and peaceful Milford Sound) |
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| (Glacier, waterfall and hanging valley) |
The cruise spent most of the day sailing across the Fiordland from Milford Sound to Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. Quite contrast to the Tasman Sea, water in the inlets was calm. The moist air from the Tasman Sea reached the mountain ranges and formed long white clouds in the fiords (as New Zealanders called sounds). When Maoris first came here, they possibly saw the same beautiful scenery. No wonder they called it the Land of the Long White Cloud.
When the settlers of the Free Church of Scotland came here about one hundred seventy years ago, they found a place in the South Island that was close to Scotland - hilly, windy and cool. They built a garden city in Dunedin. Reputable schools and the University of Otago were established here.
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| (Garden of the Olveston House) |
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| (Century-old Botanical Garden in Dunedin) |
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| (Maize in the Botanical Garden) |
As we sailed further to the North, weather became warmer with more sunshine. We revisited Picton, the gateway to the South Island. Many years ago, I took the ferry from Wellington to Picton. When Captain Cook explored this part of the world three centuries ago, he stopped here several times.
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| (Sail boats in the Shakespeare Bay near Picton) |
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| (With abundant sunshine, palm trees grow in Picton) |
Visitors coming to the North Island would love to see Auckland and Tauranga. We also visited Waltangi. This was the historical place where the British misrepresented the Waltangi treaty to the Maori tribal leaders. Under the treaty, Maoris would under the British colonial protection. However, it took more than one hundred fifty years for the Maori to regained their rights in the country.
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| (Beach in Waltangi) |
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| (Cruise ship off the shore of Waltangi) |
