One of my favourite places in New Zealand described, I spent a couple of nights on the shores of Lake Wanaka, some of the most scenic without-being-touristy nights I have had ...
To get some idea of the place, take the English Lake District, heighten the mountains, file their edges, fold them more tightly, cover most of them with snow, iron that snow, enlarge the lakes, intensify the brightness of the light by a factor of ten, banish all drizzle and shoot fourteen out of every fifteen people.
Joe Bennett, from A Land of Two Halves.
Trees bent at impossible angles
ReplyDeleteGaggles of children pulling adults for popcicles
As the central Otago Sun beat down without mercy
We sat on the grass outside the pub
Waiting for New Years Eve.
Riding a sea of Speights.
I hope the writer is talking about shooting PHOTOGRAPHS of people because the vision I was having of 14 bloody corpses and a fifteenth person running away was rather DISTURBING.
ReplyDeleteOh very nice, Mr J ... very nice indeed :)
ReplyDeleteNope, the writer is talking of shooting people. The South Island is almost half the size of Italy and has three-quarters of a million people living on it ... we can't have it getting too crowded ;)
LOVE the description!!! (Last night my husband and I had an argument, and I won, of course, about whether Australia and NZ were the same place. Yeah. American Geography lessons paying off, once again, eh?)
ReplyDeleteLOL!
Your husband ...
ReplyDeleteYou know we grow up thinking we're a continent, we also imagine the whole world knows about us ... sigh.
Okay, I will admit that my brothers are both married to and living in Australia but the same country ... tsk tsk tsk.
http://www.google.com/images?q=Lake+Wanaka
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of it all is just stunning...
Claudia, I guess your husband may be one of the victims of the US public school system ;-)
In general, large (eg the USA) or remote countries have a tendency to ignore the remaining part of the planet (mentally) - if I drive for 60 km (40 miles) I'm in a different country.
In general, the US population does have some issues with geography (all major studies came to the same conclusion) while French children scored best in geography and history.
New Zealanders kept such a low profile that it look the "Lord of the rings" series for the country to get noticed worldwide :-)
Di, you have all the qualities of a Kiwi, with the addition of an admirable inquisitiveness, a very open mind and a desire to explore physically outside the boundaries of your comfort zone.
I can imagine why your partner fell in love ;-)
New Zealanders took the Americas Cup from Dennis OConnor way back then, so some of America noticed us, and the French govt. sent in some saboteurs to blow up a Greenpeace ship in Auckland harbour. They succeeded, killing one man, and they were caught ... so some of France noticed us too.
ReplyDeleteWe made ourselves non-nuclear and the American military would no longer play with us and we're not allowed into their 'interesting' free trade agreements, and some more Americans noticed us.
Finally came Lord of the Rings and god only knows if I will ever be able to afford a house back home in NZ because everyone noticed us.
Dank u wel Peter :)
Myself & the flatmates along with a troop of other friends are off to Wanaka for 10 days early next year, all bookings have been made at a camp ground and we're in the process of attempting to organize a boat to take with us, as we already have a Jetski & some Sea Biscuits to go along for the ride.
ReplyDeleteI shall take many photos of the sights for you Di.