The Common Copper has come to rest on an ear between the tall grasses and gather new strength for his next flight. Here at the Farewell Spit, a 32 km long land tongue in the far north of the South Island, a permanent and strong north wind blows from the Cook Strait. The dunes and meadows of the land offer hardly any resistance to the wind and the gusts carry away anything which can‘t compete against this wind. After its long break, the common Copper will be capable to resist these forces again.

During the night, the wind has moved cold and dry air to the western coast of the south island and stopped the for many days ongoing rain. Now a glorious blue sky and a crystal clear air allows a magnificent view on the Westland Tai Poutini National Park. Where yesterday only a wall of fog and rain could be faced, now the range of the New Zealand alps blaze in the first sunlight of the day.

With a wingspan of above 3m, the Royal Albatross is one of the largest long distance flyers in the world. Some of these animals travel distances of about 80000km per year. They love to soar in heavy storm winds and to gain height by the dynamic updrafts. But their enormous wings and their massive body which allows them to fly in such violent air also does have a disadvantage. If the wind speed drops below 12km/h the majestic birds have to stay on the ground as they can hardly take off.

New Zealand is located on the edge of the Pacific and the Australian geolocical plates. The forces which result from this collision did form and are still forming New Zealand. They become visible in the Hidden Valley, a geothermal zone near the city of Taupo. The heat coming from the bowels of the earth pushes the water in gushing springs to the surface. Micro bacteria inhabit the area around the geysers where the water temperature drops below 60°C and feed from the sulphur compounds. Together with the minerals they give the slopes their distinctive colors.

Around the coasts of New Zealand lives the Short-Beaked Common Dolphin. On a boat trip from the mainland to one of the islands, the dolphins can almost always be observed how they ride swiftly on the bow wave of the boat and perform meter-wide jumps above the surface of the water. If it is curiosity, playfulness or simply the lust of life, which leads the dolphins to the proximity of man, is still unexplored.

The Moeraki Boulders, a collection of large spherical rocks, lie on the Koekohe Beach on the South Island of New Zealand. The origin of these stones has been around 60 million years ago. Animal and plant remnants sank on the shallow seabed and sediments attached to them over millions of years. Cracks that formed through the tidal changes over the years were refilled with new sediments and formed the remarkable lines in the stone spheres.

The Koru, the fresh partly curled frond of the fern is the national emblem of New Zealand. Already for the first inhabitants of New Zealand, the Maori, this curled leaf of the fern did have profound spiritual meaning. It can be found in carvings, paintings and in the tattoos of the Maoris. Even their ensign shows its emblem. The Koru stands as symbol for the source and the circle of all live.

Towards evening a strong western wind has moved another front across the coast line at Greymouth. It has pushed the clouds against the New Zealand Alps where they release their humidity by heavy rainfall. The beach, which is lying now tranquil in the evening sunlight, has been cleared out by the rain and the surfs of the sea. But the rising clouds on the horizon herald the approach of another front which will bring more rain.

Indefatigably the tern couple flies over the bay of the Otago Peninsula to search food for their seemingly voracious offspring. The birds glide several meters above the surface of the sea and  suddenly plunge into the sea to catch small fish and shrimp, which they push into the gullet of their hungry squab. But now, at the end of January, the young bird has become big enough to search for his own food. The parents are increasing the breaks between the feedings until the hunger drives the young Tern itself to the search for food.

The Maori call New Zealand Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud. According to a legend, the discoverer Kupe gave the islands this name after his daughter was watching the horizon and called „He ao! He ao!“ („a cloud! a cloud!“). In fact, she had discovered the Great Barrier Island, which the Maori still call Aotea what means white cloud. Soon the Maori discovered the land mass beyond the island and named it Aotea Roa.

A single sea lion has settled down on the Victory Beach of the Otago Peninsula to recover from the strains of his search for food in the sea. Fish, crustaceans and squids are on the menu of this sea lion species. However, if there is an opportunity, seabirds like penguins are also not spurned. Because of their considerable size of up to 3 m, these marine mammals do not need to fear natural enemies in the sea except of the Orca and the Great White Shark.

On the South Island of New Zealand lies the approximately 12 km long Franz-Josef-Glacier. Its foot reaches a sea level of 400 m and its ice masses move downwards with a speed of up to 70 cm per day. The reason for this exceptionally high speed for a glacier is the extremely high precipitation of up to 6,500 mm per year which ensures a constant supply of snow and ice on the 20 km² snowfield on the top of the glacier. But this glacier also shrinks as a result of global warming and is expected to have lost 5 km of its length by the turn of the century.

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