High 'n Dry with the kiwis

Kia Ora dear people (meaning Hello in traditional Maori) ... After gunning through the north island of NZ we learned that the ancestors of the Māori were a Polynesian people originating from south-east Asia. Some historians trace the early Polynesian settlers of New Zealand as migrating from today's China, making the long voyage traveling via Taiwan, through the South Pacific and on to Aotearoa (New Zealand). The name "Maori" originally meant "the local people", or "the original people". First european settlers from Australia and Great Britain arrived around 1790, These first settlers normally established peaceful relations with Maori communities - they had to, if they wanted to maintain lucrative trading relations. As of today, the "white people" plus a vast amount of asian migrants are living amongst Maori and accepting Maori lore and conventions, communal living and coexistance works way better than in neighboring Australia, where Aboriginies and european/asian Aussies live in parallel with a huge gap between each other.
In short, New Zealand is a awesome place without the shadow of a doubt, everything's here, anything's possible, sometimes it appears like a large playground for all kind of extreme outdoor activities. We learned very quickly that we're not the first colonizing the country, tourism machine is running full steam. A little downer for us which must not apply for other travallers is the fact that everything's soooo easy, frankly, we're missing the challenge a bit. Which doesn't mean that we dunnot enjoy ... we travelled from Auckland up north via Bay of Islands to ninety miles beach, then down south to Taupo, Rotorua, sitting now in charmy Wellington waiting for the ferry to kick us to the south island tonight. Have fun with the pix, have a fanciful day, enjoy the time especially the magic moments ... and so do we.
Haere ra, Irina 'n Tony.

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