Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place & home

Posts tagged ‘North Island’

Pouwhenua, Byrd Memorial, Mount Victoria, Matairangi, Tangi Te Keo, Wellington, New Zealand, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, twenty-seven

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

12 July 2012.

For a moment, I’m sweating buckets through tropical summer heat and humidity in southern Vietnam.

The next minute, I’m wearing layers of fleece on a clear winter morning in New Zealand.

That’s what happens after crossing the equator from north to south in early July.

In Wellington, I head up to the Mount Victoria summit (Tangi Te Keo) for sunrise and a panoramic view of the capital city on the North Island. In this view, a bright red “pouwhenua” stands proud and faces south; also visible are the Admiral Byrd Memorial below to the left and the Interislander ferry that’s just departed Wellington for its journey across Cook Strait to Picton on the South Island. “Pouwhenua” are traditional wooden posts carved by the Māori to indicate territorial boundaries or important cultural locations.

I made the image on 12 Jul 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/200-sec, f/8, ISO200, and 20mm focal length (32mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-m8u.

Kea, alpine parrot, Homer Tunnel, Milford Road, South Island, Te Waipounamu, Aotearoa, New Zealand, fotoeins.com

Waitangi Day (6 Feb): 15 images from Aotearoa

Above/featured: The kea is the world’s only alpine parrot and on the endangered list; on Milford Road near Homer Tunnel.

On the 6th of February, I’ll be humming “E Ihowa Atua” and “Pokarekare Ana”.

Waitangi Day is a national holiday in New Zealand to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840. As the founding document of the country, the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is an accord agreed upon by representatives of the Crown (British Empire) and of indigenous Māori iwi (tribes) and hapū (sub-tribes). The agreement is named after the name of the location in the Bay of Islands where the Treaty was first signed. Despite continuing disagreements between the two parties about contemporary extent and redress, I think the conversation and interactions between the communities are at a more advanced stage of integration within the nation’s fabric by comparison with Australia and Canada.

For Aotearoa, the New Zealand government approved in October 2013 formal names of the two main islands in Māori and English:

•   Te Ika a Māui (“the fish of Māui”) for the North Island, and
•   Te Wai Pounamu (“the waters of greenstone”) for the South Island.

I highlight Aotearoa with 15 images of the following locations:

  1. Akaroa
  2. Auckland
  3. Dunedin
  4. Franz Josef Glacier *
  5. Greymouth
  6. Hapuku (Seaward Kaikouras)
  7. Homer Tunnel *
  8. Lake Matheson *
  9. Milford Sound *
  10. Queen Charlotte Sound
  11. Queenstown
  12. Southern Alps *
  13. Waimakariri River
  14. Wellington City
  15. Wellington Harbour

Asterisks identify locations within the Te Wāhipounamu area in South West New Zealand which was inscribed in 1990 as UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes four national parks: Aoraki/Mount Cook, Fiordland, Mount Aspiring, and Westland Tai Poutini.

( Click here for images and more )

Interislander, Sinclair Head, Te Rimurapa, Cook Strait, Raukawa, North Island Te Ika a Maui, New Zealand, Aotearoa, myRTW, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Crossing New Zealand’s Cook Strait (Raukawa)

14 July 2012.

It’s a cold wet winter morning in mid-July, and I’m on New Zealand’s Interislander ferry from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. With the seasonal weather, visibility and skies are limited with low-lying stratus cloud creating some showers, mist, and fog. Fortunately, light winds create only small chop on the water, sun rays occasionally break through the grey canopy, and some geographical features begin to appear.

We bid goodbye to the North Island with this sighting of Sinclair Head, known formerly as the Māori settlement Te Rimurapa (giant bull kelp). The trailhead is faintly visible at right leading to Te Kopahou (“bent or folded feather”), whose 485-metre (1591 feet) summit is buried in cloud in this picture. The end of the ridge running as a cliff down Rimurapa is known as Taumata Patiti Pa. The strip of land jutting out to the left and into the water is Tongue Point.

Cook Strait is named after England’s famous circumnavigator Captain James Cook, but the strait’s name in Maori is “Te Moana Raukawa” (also this). This latter name may be a shortened version of “rau-kawakawa” for the leaves (rau) of the kawakawa plant used to make makeshift visors to prevent voyagers crossing the strait from unintentionally seeing islands and rocks considered too sacred to view.

More

•   “The Land of Tara …,” by Elsdon Best (1919), courtesy of Wellington City Libraries
•   NZ History
•   Rimupara – Maori sites, Te Whanganui a Tara
•   Te Ara – Encyclopedia of New Zealand
•   “History of Māori of Nelson and Marlborough“, p. 41, Hilary Mitchell and Maui John Mitchell, Huia Publishers (2004)

The Māori names for the two largest islands of New Zealand (Aotearoa) are:
•   Te Ika a Māui (Maui’s fish) for the North Island, and
•   Te Wai Pounamu (waters of greenstone) for the South Island. An alternative name is Te Waka a Aoraki (Aoraki’s canoe).

During my year-long RTW, I made this photo on 14 July 2012 with the Canon 450D, 18-55 kit-lens, and the following settings: 1/40-sec, f/8, ISO200, and 33mm focal length (53mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-9VC.

Te Whanganui a Tara, Port Nicholson, Wellington Victoria, Mount Victoria, tangi te keo, Wellington, New Zealand, Aotearoa, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: New Zealand, new day, new year

Along with Kiribati, Tokelau, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji, New Zealand is one of the first countries west of the international date line to witness sunrise and, on the first of January, to celebrate a brand new year. In the photo above, the day’s early light illuminates Wellington Harbour (Te Whanganui a Tara) and Lower Hutt in the distance, as a Bluebridge ferry begins its journey out of the harbour to cross Cook Strait for Picton on the South Island.

•   one Māori legend about Wellington harbour
•   click here for my Interislander ferry trip across Cook Strait
•   click here for a beaut of a sunrise over Wellington

I made the photo above on 12 July 2012 with the Canon 450D, EF-S 18-55 IS kit-lens, and the following settings: 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO200, 55mm (88mm full-frame equivalent) focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com at http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7vp.

New Zealand: Interislander Ferry across Cook Strait

The calendar page flips over to the 14th of July (2012).

I’ve spent a quiet week with friends in Wellington, New Zealand, and it’s time I head south to see Te Wai Pounamu or the South Island for the first time. My first destination is Christchurch, and I could fly there. But I’m in no hurry, and I want to experience the scenery route with a ferry across Raukawa Moana, otherwise known as Cook Strait.

I’ve arranged passage from Wellington on the North Island (Te Ika a Maui) to Christchurch on the South Island with ferry- and coach-service with KiwiRail. The journey begins with the Interislander ferry whose arrival is timed to match the departure time of the Coastal Pacific train leaving Picton for Christchurch.

( Click here for more )

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