A word about flora

OK I'm not one to usually comment on flora (or is it fauna? ...Flora...flower...plants...right, yes, flora).

In fact, the 'flora and fauna' section of the guidebook is usually the one I skip over entirely. That, and the history section up until around 1900. (The first Vietnamese were...next... Having broken away from Gondwanaland 10,000 years ago... Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...where's that 'Food and Drink' section)

So imagine my surprise that I'm actually going to remark on it in a substantial enough way to write a blog entry about the fauna, crap, I mean flora, of New Zealand.

First the ferns

Possibly due to a lack of any interesting and/or ferocious animals, the national symbol of New Zealand is the fern or some derivative of it. Intimidating as a fern leaf might be to international sports competitors, it's an appropriate representation of the country as ferns are everywhere. Lining the roads and trailways, big ferns, little ferns, tree ferns, old ferns, new ferns, tall ferns, short ferns (...one fern, two fern, red fern, blue fern...). All with this gorgeous rich shade of green with dark chocolate brown stems.

The koru is a Maori symbol on 4/5ths of the souvenirs of New Zealand, an artistic representation of the new fern leaf unfolding, representing new life, growth, strength & peace (thanks wikipedia!).

So perhaps it's appropriate that I'm surrounded by koru at the end of my trip.

The rest of the forest takes on an other-worldly feel

New Zealand's, um, flora don't seem to follow the rules of normal world ecology - there is rain forest next to glaciers, lichen-filled tundra (well, tundra-like) next to beaches. It looks like the set of a When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth movie, as you stroll through the woods you half expect a brontosaurus (or my favourite, triceratops) to come out and start munching away on aforementioned ferns.

It's a tropical island, but wait, no it's too cold.

It's a mountainous region, but wait, what are those palm trees doing over there...

The landscape is a - would it be cliché to use the term kaleidescope here? - of rich gold and deep green and dark brown and creamy wheat, all beautiful and mysterious, regardless if offset against a stormy grey cloud or a bright blue sky, and made even more beautiful with the autumn addition of reds, yellows, oranges in the deciduous trees.

Having officially exhausted my knowledge and vocabulary of flora I'm going to stop with the word 'deciduous'. But trust me when I say it's another world down here, and it's bloody beautiful.