Greens

Did you know that the "leidmotiv" for my trip was trees?
Sometimes I've felt like Asterix's little dog, Idefix in French. The way I could seem obsessive about native trees and about how possums do such damage to NZ forests. I don't cry like that dog though.
In revenge for them eating up the forests I spent all the cash I had left on me at the airport on objects using possum fur!
Actually, possum fur is quite good. Had I had more cash, I probably would have gone for a fur hat, or for gloves of possum/merino wool.
Oh, I wasn't going to talk about possums but about trees.

My journey essentially went from forest to forest, the forests around the lakes of Rotorua, those on the East Cape, the Mount Te Mata area, the beech forests in the North of the South Island, Paparoa National Park, Haast pass, Peel forest, the Beech forest of Lewis pass (and the sand flies), the Waitakere Ranges on the way to KareKare beach and of course the forests on the Kauri coast.
I was looking for a form of exoticism consisting in losing the familiarity of my familiar trees or trees I had seen elsewhere in the world.
In New Zealand, I discovered trees with leaves like fir trees but not the trunks. I saw fern trees aplenty. I fell in love with the tortured shapes of the pohutukawa. I became fascinated by miniature ferns.

Every time I saw an unfamiliar pattern or shape, I tried to take a picture. This new slide show is the Picasa photo album where I stowed them all and some birds. Please, feel free to add a name or explanation if you recognize something.

Signing out from my desk, this is jetlagged Dona.

Day Last

Checking my mails a last time and going over all those nice memories as I post my last pictures on Picasa.
I'm sad today but not only because I'm leaving this wonderful country and had to say goodbye to some dear new friends but also because I woke up this morning to read that one of my aunts died last night.
I'll be back here from Belgium.
Signing out from Auckland, this is Dona.