Highway 6

Never got to post pics from this part of my trip.  These shots were taken along highway 6 in New Zealand, along the west coast of the South Island.  NZ is a land of ferns.  They come in all sizes and shapes.

Here's a fine fern.

When traveling on the NZ byways, cattle delays are fairly common.  Here a cowboy is punchin' his dogies.  This is on a major highway, though one that is by no means traffic choked.  You also see sheep delays.

Islands poking out of the Tasman Sea.

Cool rocks at the Tasman.  You can see similar formations on the Sonoma coast north of San Francisco.

Took a walk through the rainforest a little way inland.  It's an empire of moss, ferns, and leaves.

There's a tree buried in here somewhere.  Nature's abstract art.

Roaring Billy Falls, tumbling into a turquoise river.

Tree ferns rule!

Hobbit hole?  The movie was filmed here, after all.  Saw it on the plane coming home.

Lizards at the Blue Pool.

Lake Hawea.  There are about half a dozen large lakes on the lee side of the South Island's coastal mountains.  They remind me of Lake Chelan, in central Washington, and Lake Okanagan, in southern British Columbia.  Climate is similar too...warm, dry summers, frosty winters, scanty rainfall.  I stayed in Wanaka, near here.  Wanaka gets only about 25 inches of rain a year while Milford Sound, on the coast about 50 miles to the west, over the mountains, is drenched with 264!