La Rue Vibre !

After 3 weeks into the tranquil New Zealand, a lot of walks (see our map, second page of markers ), we can certify you this is a really good place to “tramp” (walk for the New Zealanders).

It that simple: drive around any road for a few dozen of kilometers and your are deemed to find at least a good walk. path are well maintened, easy to follow, and often containing a lot of informations about flore or history of the area.

And flore and fauna are very special in New Zeland. Historically there were no big predators in New Zealand, therefore birds often come very close to check who you are playfully. We saw an owl in day light a few meters away, curiously staring at us.
Also New Zealand is the country of ferns and lichens, which give the forest a very old look, like walking back in time.

The climax of our walks was probably the ascension of the Taranaki volcano, whose crater still smells sulphur. Climbing a volcano is not easy as you have to walk trough fields of little volcanic rocks, climb an old lava flow, cross the crater and its snow, then reach the summit (+2500 meters).

Curiously now forest are not suffering from men but from what they brought nto the island : Possum, goats, wild pigs, rats, and diseases.

They had almost wiped out some native species, but a serious and ambitious control programme stopped this. So it’s common to see traps and poisoned baits into the forest, and so to have to wash the sol of your walking shoes to stop spreading diseases, and it’s all right!