ABC Wednesday, W for Wanaka's Wonderful World of Weirdness

Wanaka's Wonderful World of Weirdness

A Room of illusion

Welcome to Wanaka's Wonderful World of Weirdness!

For over forty years Puzzling World has been messing with people’s heads no matter what age, nationality or experience. With a mix of bizarre buildings, rooms of illusion and the world-famous Great Maze this attraction is designed to baffle your brain and challenge your perceptions of reality.

 This attraction is designed to fascinate people of all ages.

Thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words beginning with W.

ABC Wednesday, T of Tattoo

Impressive portait of the tattooed chief, Tomika Te Mutu. Many Maori leaders were painted at the turn of the century by Gottfried Lindauer.

It was only the male who had his whole visage tattooed and in many cases the designs covered the body from knees to waist. 

 

Women had their lips and chins decorated with the traditional women's moko.

  

  Respected elderly lady with the traditional moko.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words beginning with T

ABC Wednesday, S for Sound, New Zealand

Thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words beginning with S.

Te Anau was so beautiful and interesting. To begin with our unit was very comfortable, and there was a swimming pool, which was wonderful for the children.

Then there were many opportunities for a trip to the fjords or sounds.
One day we booked a trip to Milford Sound, one of the most gorgeous places in this area around Te Anau. We had to get up rather early to catch the minibus. The five of us were not the only passengers. There was a very nice Australian couple as well. The driver was a nice chap, who also was a good drawer. He drew a picture of the bus and us sitting in it.

The fjord or sound was like the Norwegian fjords and so were the glaciers.

The Norwegian fjords are used as harbours and many villages and small settlements
are built on their shores, while the New-Zealand Sounds  hardly have any settlements
Their habitants consist of wild life, like seals.

Earthquake in New Zealand

Yesterday I was shocked by the news on radio and T.V. that New Zealand was hit again by a major earthquake which happened at the places I was writing about. I am so sorry,

Ann and Marja and other bloggers living in NZ. I hope you are all safe and sound.
Here are some photos I took in Kaikura when we were whale watching.

Whale watching at Kaikura with a Maori guide.

First you see his back

Then he dives

Then you see his massive tail !!

ABC Wednesday, R for Rafting.

In my last post I wrote that the surroundings of Queenstown are popular with tourists. There are a lot of possibilities to participate in outdoor sports, like skiing and rafting.
Rafting and white water rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. We didn't do it for it is very dangerous especially when it is done  on whitewater or different degrees of rough water.

The development of this activity as a leisure sport has become popular since the mid-1970s, evolving from individuals paddling 10 feet (3.0 m) rafts with double-bladed paddles to multi-person rafts propelled by single-bladed paddles and steered by a tour guide at the stern.


Thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words beginning with R

ABC Wednesday, Q, for Queenstown in New Zealand

We saw the mountains in the area around Queenstown in the middle of the South Island and decided to stay here a couple of days. I understood why this part of the country is so popular with tourists.

Our next stop was in Te Anau, where we could  do a lot of interesting trips .
We made a tour to Milford Sound. On a walk not far from our unit we saw a water-plane sitting in the water of the Sound ( fjord in Norway).

We booked a trip in the plane and landed in another place of the fjord, where a jetboat was waiting for us. And though we were not going to do some jetboat rafting, it was rather thrilling enough for us.



The guide on the boat asked us if we could see a big treebranche in the middle of the river. He told us that here a scene from "The Lord of the Rings" was shot. It was the place where Boromir was killed.

Thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words beginning with Q.

The highest waterfall in New Zealand is the 580 m Sutherland Falls.

It is also the fifth highest waterfall in the world.

ABC Wednesday, P for Paua, New Zealand

When I was in New Zealand on a holiday with my daughter and her children, I fell in love with paua, and so I bought some souvenirs. I gave some of them away, but I kept this lovely set of salad servers.

It is only found in the sea around New Zealand. This marine mollusk eats seaweed and lives clinging to rocks at depths of 1-10 meters, normally along the shoreline. Paua Shell is the most colorful of all the abalone shells. Most other abalone are pale in comparison.

Thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words beginning with P.   

ABC Wednesday, New Zealand, O for Otago

 Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Moeraki Boulders at sunrise

The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave-cut Otago coast of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden. They occur scattered either as isolated or clusters of boulders within a stretch of beach where they have been protected in a scientific reserve. Due to erosion these boulders were exposed. Some of them weigh several tonnes.They were formed on the sea floor about  60 million years ago.

Local Māori legends explained the boulders as the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara washed ashore from the wreck of Arai-te-uru, a large sailing canoe. This legend tells of the rocky shoals that extend seaward from Shag Point as being the petrified hull of this wreck and a nearby rocky promontory as being the body of the canoe's captain.

The most striking aspect of the boulders is their unusually large size shape. Most are spherical or almost spherical, but a small proportion are slightly elongated parallel to the bedding plane of the mudstone that once enclosed them.

There are more places in the world where boulders are found.Neither the spherical to subspherical shape or large size of the Moeraki Boulders is unique to them. Virtually identical spherical boulders, called Koutu Boulders, are found on the beaches, in the cliffs, and beneath the surface inland of the shore of Hokianga Harbour, North Island, New Zealand, between Koutu and Kauwhare points. Like the Moeraki Boulders, the Koutu Boulders are large, reaching 3 metres (10 ft) in diameter, and almost spherical.

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar.
 This week we are looking for words beginning with O.

ABC Wednesday,N for New Zealand

 We tried to see as much as possible and stayed on several  holiday parks. They were all very beautiful and most of them provided with a swimmingpool, a laundry, kitchen and a shop.

Our unit in Te Anau

New Zealand

New Zealand Aotearoa (Māori)
Flag Coat of arms
Location of New Zealand within the Realm of New Zealand
Capital		Wellington 41°17′S 174°27′E
Largest city		Auckland
Official languages		96.1% English[n 2][n 3] 3.7% Māori 0.5% NZ Sign Language

In January 2005 my daughter and three children joined me on a journey to New Zealand. We stayed on the South Island to avoid the heat on the North Island., which is absolutely unbearable

New Zealand consists of two islands in the Pacific Ocean: the North Island or Te Ika-a-Maaui, and the South Island or Te Waipounamu.

Maori Welcome  He iwi tahi tatou = We are one people     Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of animal, fungal and plant life.

Franz Josef Glacier . New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland. Sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that would later become New Zealand, and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, became the first European to sight New Zealand.

Moeraki Boulders .

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar.
 This week we are looking for words beginning with N

In 1840, representatives of the British Crown and Māori Chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, making New Zealand a British colony. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.7 million is of European descent; the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is mainly derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, with English predominant. Queen Elizabeth II is the country's head of state and is represented by a Governor-General.
Moeraki Boulders