Picturesque New Zealand

I can not even begin to describe the beauty of New Zealand.  There are no words that do it justice.  The colors are unlike anything I have ever seen.  The greens and blues that we witnessed there seem almost unnatural.  They are so bright. The first time we ventured out of the city on a road trip, it was like when Dorothy wakes up in Oz and everything is Technicolor.  It. Is. Crazy.

Having lived there for two years, I feel like a bit of a spoiled brat now.  Not that I don’t find beauty in other places, but I’m always comparing it to New Zealand now.  Like, “yeah, those mountains are great and all, but let me tell you about the ones I saw in New Zealand.”  Or when I see a rainbow now, I think, “I saw a rainbow at least once a week driving the kids home from school and it was over the water”.  Like I said, spoiled.

Can you really blame me though? Look at these photos and tell me what you think.

This is literally in the middle of nowhere.  I can’t remember where we were driving to, but everyone was ready for a break.  We saw a little area to stretch our legs and when we pulled off the road, this is what awaited us.  It’s peaceful and serene and everyone was calm when we got back in the car.  Who wouldn’t want to sit here for a while?

I wasn’t lying about the mountains.  No matter what part of the country you are in, the mountains are amazing.  They aren’t the tallest or even the most colorful I’ve ever seen but there is something about them that is magical.  I don’t know if it is the surrounding scenery or the blue sky above them or if it just the mountains themselves that does it, but there is no getting away from the feeling of awe when you stand in their valleys.

The first photo (with the gate) looks like something out a Tolkien book, but no, it’s just the gate to someone’s backyard that we passed on a hike in Glenorchy.  I mean, come on New Zealand, you actually are Middle Earth.

I love looking through trees, so in this way New Zealand was a paradise as far as I was concerned.  I like the different perspective I get from focusing through the branches, like how you can just barely see the water through the trees in the last photo.

This photo was taken on the drive between Wanaka and Queenstown on the South Island.  I’ve dubbed it “a walk in the clouds” because it felt like doing just that.  Aotearoa is the Maori name for the country of New Zealand and it means “The Land of the Long White Cloud”.  There are always big, long, white, fluffy clouds in the sky over New Zealand.  I can’t imagine a more appropriate name for this beautiful country.

And then there are the waterfalls.  There are waterfalls everywhere you go in New Zealand.

There are the huge waterfalls that are big attractions like Huka Falls near Taupo on the North Island. Huka Falls is a ridiculous shade of turquoise and I personally could have stood there for hours just watching it.

There are waterfalls along the side of the road everywhere.  My kids eventually stopped looking up when I excitedly announced yet another waterfall when we were on road trips.  That’s how many there are.

And then there are the waterfalls that you really have to work for.  These are the best kind in my opinion.  They are the ones that are at the end of a hiking trail and when you reach them you realize that the hike was more than worth it.

I am sure that my words have done little to enhance the photos and even the photos don’t do the reality justice.  You hope that someday you have the opportunity to see the beauty of New Zealand for yourself.