On the Road: Lakes, Flowers and Car-Destroying Birds

As with any road trip, we’re driving a lot these days, sometimes stopping just for a few minutes on the side of the road to take a photo of something beautiful, sometimes stopping for a few hours for a longer walk. But most of the time, we’re in the car. I try to focus on the idea that, very often, it’s not the destination that’s important, but the journey to get there. And we do see a lot of beautiful landscapes and places also from the moving car.

Here are just a few various impressions from the road:

A typical street here on the South Island: just 2 lanes, in perfect condition, and mostly empty

Lakes

New Zealand is famous for its beautiful lakes, but I have to admit that, until very recently, I couldn’t have said whether that’s justified or not. I guess it was just by chance that we hadn’t seen many lakes yet on our trip. But these last few days have brought us views of a lot of lakes, and now I completely understand why other travelers are so in love with New Zealand’s lakes.

Here is Lake Matheson, which we saw over a walking circuit that we did around it:

Here is Lake Hawea, which we saw on our way to Wanaka:

We spent one night in Wanaka and then we drove on to our next destination. On the way, Daniel caught a glimpse of some nice flowers by the side of the road, so we decided to stop quickly and take a look. Walking about 50 m from the road, we saw this. For me, it was one of these moments when your mouth opens and… stays open, because you forget to close it. We’ve been driving around in New Zealand for about 2 weeks now, and every day brings something amazingly beautiful. You’d think that, by now, we should somehow be used to the impressive landscapes. Still I can’t help but be surprised time and again about how beautiful the country is.

Getting a visit from kea birds

When you stop your car in a small parking lot for a short break, you don’t normally expect that, one minute later, there will be 2 big wild parrots on its roof, pulling at anything they can get their beaks on. But when that happens, at first you think it’s funny, and then you realize that they’re actually destroying your rental car and you should stop taking photos and shoo them away, before you end up having to pay for the damage. At least that’s what happened to us when driving over a mountain pass and getting a visit from some kea…

A kea is a type of big alpine parrot, said to be one of the most intelligent birds in the world. Besides their intelligence, they’re also known for their knack for picking at cables, isolations, screws, and in general any small thing sticking out of or attached to a car. And we got a taste of this first hand, because a kea that landed on our campervan very quickly managed to dislocate some of the isolation on its roof! Hmmmm…