Water

Being islands, New Zealand has a lot of water. This water is Milford Sound, which Captain Cook ignored on all his trips to New Zealand because he thought it looked boring and didn’t lead anywhere.

His loss, he missed the sunbathing fur seals.

Some of the lakes are turquoise colored. The color comes from ground glacial rock. Or maybe someone spilled some food coloring.

More turquoise water. This is in Abel Tasman National Park and is fairly warm.

To start the Abel Tasman hike, I took a water taxi to Bark Bay. It was low tide, so the boat had to be towed into the water by a large tractor. But first the tractor had to get to the water. This involved driving along the road.

Then along the beach.

With all the other boats. And tractors.

Then the tractor backed the boat into the water and off we went. Since it was low tide, that also meant that I got dropped off in the water.

This water at the end of the Hooker Valley Track contains mini-icebergs and was much colder. It was so windy I thought my hat would blow away, but the mini-icebergs were not bothered.

I am sitting atop several of the Moeraki Boulders. They are large round rocks in the ocean which is strange but awesome.

New Zealand contains smaller rocks also.

Here is a flock of ducks. They're in for a big surprise when they wake up and find that their water has disappeared.