New Zealand Heritage Sites Gallery

Awesome dawn over volcanic landscape, Tongariro

View of snowcapped Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom) volcano, Red Crater and Emerald lakes, at dawn, Tongariro crossing, Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand

© Matteo Colombo

2015, 578363229, Atmospheric Mood, Awe, Beauty In Nature, Color Image, Dawn, Dramatic Landscape, Emerald Lake, Famous Place, Horizontal, Landmark, Landscape, Meadow, Mountain, Mt Ngauruhoe, Mystery, National Park, Nature, New Zealand, No People, North Island New Zealand, Outdoors, Photography, Ruapehu District, Scenics, Simplicity, Snow, Snowcapped Mountain, Tongariro National Park, Tranquility, Valley, Volcano

New Zealand flax lily in bloom in Tongariro National Park

Native to New Zealand Phormium tenax, known as New Zealand flax, flax lily or just as flax in New Zealand, is an evergreen perennial plant used as fibre plant and a popular ornamental plant. Phormium tenax grows as a clump of long, straplike leaves and tall flowering shoot with yellow or red flowers. Tongariro National Park is the oldest national park in New Zealand, located in the central North Island. It has been acknowledged by UNESCO as one of the 28 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites

© Dmitry Naumov

North New Zealand

Cape Reinga, official name Cape Reinga/Te Rerenga Wairua, is the north westernmost tip of the Aupouri Peninsula, at the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand.
Cape Reinga is more than 100 km north of the nearest small town of Kaitaia. State Highway 1 extends all the way to the Cape, but until 2010 was unsealed gravel road for the last 19 km.
Suitable vehicles can also travel much of the way via Ninety Mile Beach and Te Paki stream bed.
The Te Rerenga Wairua component of the name in MA?ori language means the leaping-off place of spirits. The Reinga part of the name is the MA?ori language word meaning the underworld.
Both refer to the MA?ori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld.
Cape Reinga is on the tentative list of UNESCO waiting to receive World Heritage Site status.
The cape is already a favorite tourist attraction, with over 120, 000 visitors a year and around 1, 300 cars arriving per day during peak season. Visitor numbers are growing by about five percent a year, and the increase is likely to become even more now that the road to the cape is fully sealed

© Stig Stockholm Pedersen