Gardens, Birds and Worms

I have been amazed at the beauty that I've seen so far in New Zealand.  Just the simplicity of driving down the road on the way home from my 20 minute drive from the grocery store still takes my breath away.  "Am I really living in such a beautiful place as this?  Must I really leave?  Can I find this serenity in the states?"

Then we visit three different and amazing places today that testifies of God's amazing creations that took my breath away.  I have to say I was a bit speechless a few moments at what my eyes took in.  No pricey (or mid-priced in our case) camera could EVER really capture the majesty of what laid before us this weekend.  Unfortunately, at one specific case they did not allow camera's in at all and that I respected because it needed to be preserved the best way possible.

We started Friday night by going to  the Hamilton Gardens.  We thought we'd walk around for about 30 minutes or so checking out some nice plants and shrubbery but boy were we WRONG!  We  walked in and were immediately engulfed in walls of greenery and oh the smell of earth that surrounded us.  We got lost in the paths instantly and followed them around for a good 3 hours and only covered half of the grounds.  It was beautiful in all its entire splendor.  There was one thing that was pretty funny but maybe only because we were American. (You'll see) 

They had a "Paradise Garden Collection" area where they featured gardens from a variety of places.  Job well done.  I know where the next place I'd want to live/decorate my home like/have a backyard party decorated after.  What's your favorite?

English Flower Garden

Japanese Garden of Contemplation

Chinese Scholar's Garden

American Modernist Garden

Italian Renaissance Garden

Indian Char Bagh Garden

Saturday we woke up early and took a long drive to Ortorhanga where they have the largest private collection of native birds.  And you know what that means?  Kiwis!  They had a lot of great birds to see and of course the Kiwis were the main reason for our visit.  We had seen them before on our last visit to NZ but these ones were huge and amazing to watch eat among the leaves and trees.  They really are a beautiful bird.  I just still don't get it how they can function without any arms/wings.  Just two legs and a beak.  Hmmm, I'll ask God about that one later. 

We watched two Kea birds be fed by a trainer and man are those things smart.  Beautiful and smart!  What a catch in the bird world.  Smarter than my two year old who earlier in the day put his finger in a fence and got it bit by a orange beaked bird.  Sad, but it was the highlight of that outing for the kids.

Kea Bird

Darn bird that bit Maddy

Next we made our way down the road to the most incredible, beautiful, spectacular, unbelievable real sight that I've ever seen.  We visited the Waitomo Glowworm Caves.  I have to say that we saw a lot more than just glowworms though.  In the tour they take you down in to the deep caves of limestone, stalactites and stalagmites before you are deep enough to reach water and the underground of earth to see where the glowworms live.  Along the way you see caverns, tunnels and a cave "cathedral" in which performers such as the Vienna Boys Choir come and sing.  Visiting Opera Singers to sing Christmas Music here as well.  Can you imagine?  WOW.  Then you  move on and learn of the life cycle of the glowworm, they turn off the small amount of lights and then there they are!  Hanging like small threads of silk and glowing like stars in the dark.  Colors of green, light blue and white light right above our heads.  It was breath taking.

To get out of the huge cave that we had just climbed down in to and walked around in they put us in a boat and they floated us out through a series of rope pulling that lead us around more tunneling in the dark.  As we floated the only light that shined above us were hundreds of little specks of lights of glowworms.  It looked like we were looking up in to the night sky and looking at a full night of stars.  Just beautiful.  Just lovely.  Just AAAH.

Glowworm Cave

"Cathedral"

At one point in the cave I turned to my kids and said, "Hey you guys, this stuff is real!  This has been created by God.  He put this here.  This is not Disneyland and it was not made to look like this by some person.  This is all real."  Just then Walker says "Ya' I was just going to say that this place looks like the Indiana Jones ride."  Oh how our minds have been tainted.