Impressions from a trip through the South Island of New Zealand

We traveled this summer for 10 days through the South Island of New Zealand. Just some random impressions of our stunning country which I so enjoy.

My heart is however full of sadness as well as my favourite poet has passed away

Thanks Mary for your wisdom and beauty RIP

Morning Poem 

by Mary Oliver 

Every morning

the world

is created.

Under the orange

sticks of the sun

the heaped

ashes of the night

turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches—

and the ponds appear

like black cloth

on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.

If it is your nature

to be happy

you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination

alighting everywhere.

And if your spirit

carries within it

the thorn

that is heavier than lead—

if it's all you can do

to keep on trudging—

there is still

somewhere deep within you

a beast shouting that the earth

is exactly what it wanted—

each pond with its blazing lilies

is a prayer heard and answered

lavishly,

every morning,

whether or not

you have ever dared to be happy,

whether or not

you have ever dared to pray.

A lonely tree standing rock steady at Doubtful Sound

Mount Cook towering above its shedded tears

The Lindis Pass where mountains ruffle and rumple over earths crust

Near Punakaiki  a fly hovering placidly above, the ocean clashing with the rocks 

The sound of lapping water, the soothing sight of the Hawea river and the bush

The tree whispers in the wind in the water at Lake Wanaka

Lake Dunstan basking in beauty