It's beginning to look a lot like...

...early spring? Indian summer? Anything but Christmas! At highs between 15 - 18° C. I don't feel at all like decorating for the season, though it's high (oops - sorry about the pun) time I get started. But when roses, lavender and geraniums are still blooming outside, and autumn leaves tenaciously hang onto tree branches, dreams of a white Christmas are far away.

It's inevitable though - Christmas markets are being set up in cities everywhere. Our local one includes a skating rink that will be an attraction throughout the coming month. It's going to take an awful lot of energy to keep that ice frozen...

more NZ pictures

Paihia was the northernmost point of my New Zealand trip, on the beautiful Bay of Islands. Here, as always more effective than a thousand words, are pictures:





Sunrise over the bay












Cruising around the islands












Dolphins - lively, and therefore difficult to get in sharp focus












The Hole-in-the Rock










Double rainbow! And yes, that is a swimming pool belonging to the backpackers' accomodation in which I stayed.

Now that I've had time to look through my photos, I'll be sharing some which should be of general interest to my readers. To start off, I caught a rainbow over New Zealand!

Here's the Auckland skyline, seen from the ferry.



Experiencing spring twice this year was one of the great privileges of travelling to the southern hemisphere in our autumn! I took more pictures of blooming flowers and blossoming trees than anyone besides myself would probably want to see. These are in Rotorua, NZ.



Bizarre rock formations and geysers are fascinating to see! (also in Rotorua)


More to come in the next days...


Hier sind nun einige Fotos aus Neuseeland zu sehen - ein Regenbogen, vom Flugzeug aus; die Skyline von Auckland, von der Fähre gesehen; Frühlingsblumen und blühende Bäume, der große Vorteil einer Reise zur südlichen Hemisphäre in unserem Herbst; und bizarre Steinformationen und Geysire. Mehr in den nächsten Tagen...