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Eyes half shut - New Zealand diaries

This is the path our travels took us on.  Auckland to  Rotorua to Taupo (largest lake in NZ) to Wellington to Picton to Christchurch to Queenstown to Franz Josef (the alpine glacier) to Nelson close to Marlborough country - no relation to the smokes -  to Picton again for the ferry crossing into the north island and Wellington.  Then onward through some scenic villages to Auckland for the flight home.

So 10 towns in 20 days and you can imagine sleep is a rare commodity.  Also one can always sleep later when there is humdrum of regular life to deal with.

So with that sort of half awake and excitable state helped with local cappuccinos we flavored and sampled the isles of NZ.  Reminded me of the Ajit line - to paraphrase - scenery usee sone nahin degi aur thakann usee Jagne nahin degi (the nature scenes overload will not let him sleep while the same sensory exhaustion will not keep him awake).

Tremendous tectonic and volcanic activity over eons has left the landscape amazingly diverse from massive glaciers that carve out mountains and leave rivers of water and rock running to lakes of sea.

In fact you will rarely drive without some body of water hugging the road anywhere in the country..lake or river or ocean always accompanies the weary.  The southern alps as they are known split the southern island along its north south axis.  These mountains have some spectacular peaks and valleys through which our bus exposed us to awesome vistas with various waterfalls falling hundreds of feet to also provide vertical interest not just the horizontal that we were getting used to.

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