Travel Log #15 New Zealand, North Island

From South island we took 3 hours ferry to North lsland across Cook Strait and came to NZ capital Wellington named after british general Sir Wellington who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, the city reminds me San Francisco because of its hills, cable cars and harbour, the most memorable was my visit to The Museum of New Zealand- Te Papa in Maori, built few years ago, displays are very innovative, exploring 2 cultures- maori and european,

i saw a replica of Burt Munro's 1962 record breaking bike-the "Munro Special" indian scout who was in the great Kiwi [NZ] movie 'The world's fastest Indian",

driving throughNorth island we saw a lot o f rolling hills, farming land with thousands cows, sheeps and horses, farming in NZ is the most productive in the world becayse of

2 climate-no snow, no frost, no cold temperature, no draught,[ NZelanders call NZ-Gods own country],

in the city of Rotorua we went to world famous Agrodome for show of sheeps and cows, it was like in the circus, then I MILKED A COW and got a certificate of udderance, fun,

Rotorua is in geotermal region with spraying geysers, bubling mud and sulfur smell,

i i was bathing in Polynesian spa in sulfur pool, we visited geothemal power station.

NZ is nuclear free [ in Belgium tour guide told us that electricity is very cheap because they have a lot of nuclear power station ] NZ is very strong on nature conservation and protection, we went to Nature Park- Rainbow Spring [robot -computer took photo of me which i am attaching here] which cultivates bush,ferns, trees plants , birds - unique in NZ, national icon of NZ -kiwi is a flightless bird with a very long nose, comes out for food only at night,

Kauri tree or gum tree is only here, lives up to 3 000 years, used for making timber, furniture and NZ amber beautiful jewelery,

Maori is a collective name for 27 tribes living here,given by Europeans they were cannibals,ate enemies and few whites,

British settled NZ last and learned from their mistakes with locals here they signed a treaty with Maori chiefs in 1840 , we went to few Moari museums, concert,dinner, listen to Maori , admire their wood carvings,

South Pacific [ remember musical] is a very very enchantig area, we sailed Bay of Islands watching dolphins jumping,

Auckland is a bigest city 1,3 mil. city of sails ,open green and contemporary,

1 spent 16 wonderful days in NZ, it is almost " paradise "on earth , everithing is balanced very well.