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The world has a picture of New Zealand being a natural paradise. In truth, native vegetation can only be found in reservations while most of the country (or at least the North Island) is either pasture or recently planted pine forest. The few remaining native trees which can't be found anywhere else, like the rata or the rimu are carefully guarded. These trees had fallen victim not only to the ax. Their most recent enemy is the opossum, an animal not native to New Zealand and so without any enemies, whose favorite treat is the fresh new leaf of the rata tree.
While we didn't see many if the threatened species, the non-threatened vegetation was special enough and we very much enjoyed looking at the triangular araucaria, the aptly named cabbage tree, the huge ferns with trunks like palm trees.
The last picture shows a tree just starting to bloom. It could have been taken in early spring in Boston and indeed, it was early spring there. Yet, on the same hillside, ripe oranges were hanging from some trees while others had huge, colorful summery blooms.
