New Zealand

A green land soaked with sun and rain

 After our first four days in New Zealand I have to say that everything I've heard about this place is true! Beautiful scenery. Very friendly people. Lovely climate. Fascinating avifauna (more about that later).

New Zealand is the land of ferns. The silver fern is the country's national symbol and is on three of the five finalists for the country's new flag design. They can grow to be as big as trees.

I wondered why it was called the "silver" fern until I turned a frond over.

The Auckland skyline

For a small country of only 4.5 million people, isolated by vast oceans, New Zealand seems to be doing rather well. Auckland, the largest city with 1.4 million people, is a bustling multicultural place. Our time spent in the cafes, on the buses and wandering through the parks helped us understand why the locals spoke so highly of this very "livable" city.