There's one place that you're welcome to

[venta]

<shakes head>

What time is it ? Is it morning ?

Am now back from New Zealand. You didn't break the UK while I was away, did you ?

In summary, I saw:

• Penguins.


• Volcanoes.


• Really big hills.


• Felix get married. The lady in question is still lovely.


• Flying fish.


• Dophins.


• An avalanche.


• Glow worms (alledgedly).


• Masses of primordial forest.


• Fjords.

... and lots of other stuff. It's been a busy fortnight.

New Zealand really is a very long way away. It takes forever to get there. And back.

Comments

[igniscience.livejournal.com]

welcome back ! ooh, lots of cool stuff... hope you didn't see the avalanche from too close up !

are dophins related to dolphins at all ? ;p

[venta.livejournal.com]

No, dophins are something to do with the erstwhile rulers of France. Big, aquatic mammals, though. And the avalanche was far enough away to be "oooh" rather than "aaaargh!".

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, the avalanche that was there when I was visiting the place in this photo was more "Er, where is it? Oh. Is that what an avalanche looks like then?"

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Erstwhile rulers-to-be of France are related to big aquatic mammals, though, on account of the title having come from a coat of arms. What none of them are, is spelt "dophin"...

[venta.livejournal.com]

You know, it's almost like I knew that but was trying to get myself out of a speling-misstake hole :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Welcome back !

Fjords

Hope you don't end up pining for them. ;-)

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

*Is ded of jealous*

What do you mean you allegedly saw glow worms. They are pretty bright. Did you try black water rafting?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I saw a very blackly dark cave, studded with lots and lots of little blue-ish lights. The say glow-worms, I say LEDs. Pretty, though.

And no, we managed to get round the whole of NZ without doing anything that could even be plausibly described as an extreme sport. I know black water rafting is a lot more tame than in sounds, but we were in a large barge which floated gently about on its black water :)

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I know black water rafting is a lot more tame than in sounds,

Ooooh, I don't know... I got told off by the guide for dripping blood on the path on the way back from the cave to the minibus, because they didn't want to put people off who were about to go down. I would have thought it would add to the ambience.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Hope you had a great time! And that they're both very very happy.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yup, they did look it!

[thefon.livejournal.com]

I'll second that, they certainly did look happy.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Yay for penguins!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Indeed, they were even hoiho that we saw.

[paste.livejournal.com]

ahhhh, the motherland! glad you had fun, makes me a little homesick hearing that other people have been to nz & i haven't.

which bit of primordial forest did you visit?
and why weren't you sure about the gloworms?

[venta.livejournal.com]

No specific bits of forest, just large chunks of bush everywhere. Any forest looks a bit primordial with some of those tree-fern thingies in it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

As for the glow-worms, see above (http://venta.livejournal.com/217986.html?thread=3188354#t3188354).

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Welcome back. Sounds very busy - any photos appearing any time soon? Or more detailed accounts?

<looks hopeful>

[venta.livejournal.com]

Photos have gone to the developers, so will hopefully be available soon. More details as and when I get the chance to write them :)

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

New Zealand really is a very long way away. It takes forever to get there. And back.

I know.

And if you were in Waitomo, then you saw glow-worms.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Nope, I was in Te Anau. See above (http://venta.livejournal.com/217986.html?thread=3188354#t3188354) for reasons of doubting the worms' authenticity.

[violetdisregard.livejournal.com]

Sweet as!! I didn't know you came to NZ! Where did you go? Cos if you were anywhere near Auckland you could have come visit me :)

It is a fuck of a long flight isn't it?! Although if you have a good selection of films on board it's not too bad. A good time to watch shite movies you wouldn't normally want to pay for.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I landed in and flew out of Auckland, but otherwise was nowhere near it. I'd have given you a yell otherwise - during my stay I was no further north than Whakatane. Which is a shame, cos I'd hope to see the Bay of Islands, but it didn't work out with other people's plans.

I flew with Air New Zealand, who have video-on-demand for long flights these days. I never usually watch films on flights but, actually managed to get through three whole movies in my two flights because I could start and stop them as required...

[violetdisregard.livejournal.com]

Well you've seen more of the country than I have. I haven't actually ventured outside of the Auckland region. Despite that, I have still managed to see dolphins, penguins, stingrays, a ganet colony, volcano with it's very own lava fields, plenty of the fern thingies you mentioned, Tom Cruises' supposed mansion, Sky Tower and more hills than I'd prefer.

I really would like to venture down to the South Island. There is some pretty spectacular scenery, plus they have all the mountains down there the greedy bastards!