Since it is summer and I'm on my semester break I thought I would takes this Thursdays post to get me and you guys into the holiday spirit.
On 9. September I will be going back to New Zealand for about 3 weeks which I'm so so excited about. And to get me even more excited I thought I would take today to show you some of the amazing pictures I took over there and share this precious time of my live with all the people of the internet.
New Zealand is such a breathtakingly beautiful country. You can look out of the same window every day and it will never look the same and around every corner there is something new to explore.
I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to visit this amazing country and even more so now that I will be going back.
And since I am taking all of you with me anyway why not show you where we will be going together? And give you a little sneak peek of what you will be seeing a lot more of in September.
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| view over Wellington when I was leaving for the Christmas Holiday |
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| sunsets in New Zealand are the most amazing thing. I took this picture after I had been for a run, at the beach along Kapiti Coast |
This is Mount Egmont or Mount Taranaki, as the Maoris call him. The Maori have a lot of legends regarding their country and I would like to share the one about this mountain with you. It shows just how much the Maori love their home and nature itself. And they do have a very personal connection to their land since in their legends all the mountains and rivers are gods.
Taranaki is a mountain that lived peacefully for many centuries in the centre of New Zealand's North Island with three other mountains, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu.
Nearby stood Mount Pihanga. Covered in a cloak of deep green forest she presented a stunning sight and all the mountain gods were in love with her.
Taranaki dared to make advances to Pihanga and was reproached by Tongariro and a mighty battle ensued between them.
The earth shook and the sky became dark as the mountains belched forth their anger. When the battle ended the lovely Pihanga stood close by Tongariro's side. Taranaki, wild with grief and jealously, angrily wrenched his roots from the ground and left the other mountains.
Weeping, he plunged towards the setting sun, gouging out a deep wide trench. When he reached the sea he turned north and stumbled up the coast. As he slept that night the Pouakai Ranges snared and trapped Taranaki in the place he now rests.
The next day a stream of clear water sprang from the side of Tongariro and the Maori believe it were his tears that filled the river. It flowed down the deep scar Taranaki had left on his journey to the coast to form the Whanganui River.
There are those who say that Taranaki is silently brooding and will one day try to return inland again to fight Tongariro, because the Maori believe that Mount Taranaki is still grieving due to his loss of Mount Pihangas love.
They explain this believe with the clouds that always cover the top of the Mountain actually making it impossible to see it. However my mum and I were really lucky and got a little glimpse of the top but literally 2 minutes later the peak of the mountain was hidden behind clouds again. He is called the Cloudy Mountain amongst a lot of Maori.
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| I looked so different back then :) It's crazy... |
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| This is a picture I took at Oriental Parade in Wellington which is where I used to live with my host family, well we lived near by anyway. |
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| We also had a bit of snow while I was there and all of New Zealand freaked out. Now you have to know that most of New Zealand is about 10 m above sea level so they are not very likely to get snow there. Anyway it wasn't even snowing in the way that it is here in Germany in winter, but nevertheless they made a big deal out of it. It was actually really fun to see how they all got super excited about a bit of sleet whilst most of the German AuPairs didn't even bother to go outside :D In addition to that we even had a weather alert telling us to stay inside and maybe stock up on our supplies :) |
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| Yeah that was me with long hair almost 2 years ago... It's crazy how fast time goes by |
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| My mum actually took this picture during her time in New Zealand. It was taken around easter 2012 on our way to the South Island with the Inter Islander (a ferry). |
And I will leave you guys with this lovely picture that an amazing friend took. He is a very talented photographer and whenever we would get bored we drove to one of the beaches and took pictures:)
Let me know if you like these kind of post and I might be back with another one of these travel related entries next week. Maybe about my trip to London that I took during my last year of school?
x
J.
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