One sunny day on the Queen Charlotte track

The Queen Charlotte Track is one of the great walk of NZ (un petit frere du GR 20). Winding around the coastline of the Marlborough Sounds.

Starting bright and early to get dropped at Resolution Bay.

 This is a private property that tolerate us walking people.

The rest of the garden and the house definitely match.

 Rachel in the morning sun :-)

 Two of the numerous views. Amazing.

We were supposed to be finished walking round 12h30.

We reached Furneaux Bay around 15h... because we could not take our eyes of the numerous views.

 Picked up at Furneaux Bay.

Yep one can do the orange and purple ice cream. Something like choco-orange/liquorice.

Interesting melange....

Heading South

 Second ferry crossing for Mano (first was the Channel about 9 years ago...)

 Picton, South Island

Grove Arm of the Charlotte Sound, Marborough

Te Papa - WOW exhibition

The World of Wearable Art is quite an NZ phenomenon, I think there are exhibitions every year.

The game is to built clothing made of wearable material such as paper, wood, tin, feathers.

I did not write odwn the individual names, but below are some examples:

wood:

 felt cloth:

 woven flax:

 unsure...

 metal sheets:

 wonder if this one was part of the theme where each garnment had to be flipped over to reveal another one. A bit like the concept of a reversible jacket. One greendress when pulled up reveal pea pods :-)

 Our favorite:

 Tinkerbell?

 Side display: the March Hare

 And the beautiful princess shoes

These costumes are displayed in real life during something like a "ballet". Some short extracts were shown and it is quite mesmerizing. If you are curious, take a visit there.

Te Papa Wellington - 2

Te Papa also has a section on the Pacific Island in general, retracing their voyages,

different islands, different peoples, differents tatooes.

 Love the "bolduc" necklace

And an impressive interactive display to taste the Pacific Island's music.

This table enable each "player" to command one instrument.

Lots of fun!

Wellington by the Tardis

(Following Mum's footprints, from Wellington to Nelson)

We actually met some bad weather and found ourselves (well, really myself, having only packed crocs...) in need of travel supply. In there some nifty black shoes hide.

 The strong winds, a regular if not daily occurrence in Welly, didn't trouble our ladyship-pilot and her first mate, who landed the plane extremely smoothly.

And after a quick stop to the Youth Hostel to get lighter bags, we walked on the warf

... and entered Te Papa museum.

here's the first glimpse, on the Te Aotearoa section (there are 6 levels, with 2 temp exhibitions and 2 permanent). In several display you find yourself listening to a Moko (petit-enfant) and a Koro (Grand-pa) talking about legends, with swirling maori pattern on the ceiling.

A little mystical.

 Rachel did wonder why these door were so tiny, for your average Maori warrior size. And she got Intel! Apparently it is designed for tight fit so that if you are inside and you don't like that warrior that's coming, you can beat them out.

Belwo is a more modern version of Maori art. This was taken in a cotemporary Marae (sort of community hall), and it features the Maori symbol overlain by the Treaty of Waitangi.

There Mano and I filled a form about our identity. We had to think about how we came to Aotearoa, who was our father, our mother and where were the Mountain and the River we knew.

Somehow Mano picked Olympus Mons from Mars....Go Percy Jackson.

Mano and Rachel chilling while taking the sight of Wellington :)

However, Te papa has a little more in store than traditional Maori culture...

Reviendus (Back home)

Not wanting to go back to work tomorrow....

Trip to Northland - Deep in the Kauri Forest

 Lucky the navigator, aim for the forest

 Mano and Tane Mahuta, the largest living Kauri in NZ, about 13.7m diameter, 2,100 years...

And below is the gum collection. Gum digging was a large industry for years. Gum was used as ornaments, to make oil, wax; the wood (sometimes retrieved from swamps) was used for building.

 Claire's paradise :-)

Trip to Northland - dunes

Awaking in Spirits' Bay on a shelly beach

Being in Spirits' Bay we left a message for Jim

then...

back on the road, just south west of Cape Reinga to the Giant Te Paki sand dunes!

They just wouldn't fit my camera. So here's a shot of Mano climbing one, his surfboard in hand. You can count about the same height he already climbed that I've chopped cos we were the only ones keen to touch the sand!

Going back for more!

 The dunes are so massive that they've started indurating in places.

Although not as spectacular as the Te Paki dunes, there are a number of dunes along the west coast, below is Opononi. A village where a female doplhin used to come and play with people, letting the kids ride her back!