Come Fly With Me - To New Zealand

**Hillbillygirl** · 04-13-2012, 07:57 PM

Absolutely beautiful scenes and memories you have captured and shared with us MA. A big thanks for doing so again. Love seeing this part of the world as you present it so well in your work.

**Iguanasan** · 04-13-2012, 11:36 PM

Great set... I think the fellows fishing back on page 1... the first in the set of "Fly Fishing" is my favourite shot but that cool spider web is a close second.

**Doug L** · 04-14-2012, 03:04 AM

Really enjoy the composition of last fly fishing shot.

**Mad Aussie** · 04-14-2012, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by Hillbillygirl

Absolutely beautiful scenes and memories you have captured and shared with us MA. A big thanks for doing so again. Love seeing this part of the world as you present it so well in your work.

Thank you very much for saying so HBG. Stay tuned for so much more and much of it much prettier yet

Originally Posted by Iguanasan

Great set... I think the fellows fishing back on page 1... the first in the set of "Fly Fishing" is my favourite shot but that cool spider web is a close second.

Cheers Iggy. I found and shot some more webs later in the holiday ... you'll see those later

Originally Posted by Doug L

Really enjoy the composition of last fly fishing shot.

Thanks Doug!

**Gremlich** · 04-14-2012, 06:42 PM

I'm just gonna give up and sell my gear.....

**Mad Aussie** · 04-14-2012, 07:42 PM

Originally Posted by Gremlich

I'm just gonna give up and sell my gear.....

Nooooooooooooooooo

**Mad Aussie** · 04-14-2012, 08:25 PM

Another day and another adventure. We headed off and drove up to a nearby lookout that over looked Lake Taupo.
Lake Taupo is a lake situated in the North Island of New Zealand.
Lake Taupo lies in a caldera created by a supervolcanic eruption which occurred approximately 26,500 years ago. According to geological records, the volcano has erupted 28 times in the last 27,000 years. Taupo eruptions are rated as the largest in the world in the past 5000 years.
With a surface area of 616 square kilometres (238 sq mi), it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand, and the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray (Papua New Guinea).

Lake Taupo has a perimeter of approximately 193 kilometres, a deepest point of 186 metres. It is drained by the Waikato River (New Zealand's longest river), while its main tributaries are the Waitahanui River, the Tongariro River, and the Tauranga Taupo River. It is a noted trout fishery with stocks of introduced brown trout and rainbow trout.

In the previous photo we look over the small area of Tokaanu and then off towards the western shores of lake Taupo.
This shot is of a small stream that runs through a small geothermal area ...

Next we drove up and around to the western shores of the lake where we visited two beautiful little bays with crystal clear water ...

**AcadieLibre** · 04-14-2012, 11:30 PM

Some stunning photos and trip is always a trip and glad you got away for one.

**Mad Aussie** · 04-14-2012, 11:41 PM

After enjoying the lake (we'd return to that in a few days), we headed off for a look at the Tongariro National Park on the volcanic plateau. There are 3 main mountains here, Mt Tongariro (pron. ton ga rir o) which still steams away as you'll see in the photos below, Mt Ruapehu (pron. roo a pay oo) which has erupted significantly a few times in recent years, and the cone shaped Mt Ngauruhoe (pron. nar a ho ee) which erupted last in the 60's and was used as Mt Doom for the Lord of the Rings movies.
Mt Ruapehu has several ski fields.

Mt Tongariro comes into view and the smoking crater on it's side is active today

Lord of the Rings' Mt Doom is really Mt Ngauruhoe. Here we see it jutting up off the lower slopes of Mt Tongariro

A lone hiker (hiking is called 'tramping' in New Zealand) sets off on the 7 hr walk over Mt Tongariro. This walk is called the Tongariro Crossing.
The man in this photo is a fella who was hitchhiking to get here and we picked him up at the turn to the mountain. He turned out to be a Taiwanese man who called himself Cyrus. He was all smiles, very upbeat, and so very grateful that we had picked him up.

This is New Zealand ... and we are in the mountains ... there must be some cool rivers and waterfalls around here somewhere