The Long White Cloud

---

May 7th 2014
The Mauri name for New Zealand is "Land of the Long White Cloud". I might have gone with "Land of the Long Wet Shower", but I can definitely see what they were getting at. Clouds are a prominent feature of the landscape here. They don't impassively form a backdrop like normal clouds. They morph and hover weirdly like UFOs. Cling in clumps to the sides of mountains like fake cobwebs at Halloween. C ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Franz Josef

---

The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year... ... read more