Road to Glenorchy, New Zealand - "Do Not Worry about Tomorrow"

 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown - "For Where Your Treasure is, There your Heart will be Also"

 

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths an vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

Shotover River, South Island - "The Eye is the Lamp of the Body"

The eye is the lamp of the body.  If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light within your is darkness, how great is that darkness?

No one can serve two masters.  Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.

Matthew 6:22-24

South Island, New Zealand - "We Fix Our Eyes Not on What is Seen"

 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far out weights them all  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

Lake Wanaka - Sun Greets the Mountains

"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains."

John Muir

Lake Wanaka, South Island - "And the Mountains fall into the Heart of the Sea..."

 

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever present help in trouble,
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into
the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake
with their surging.

Psalm 46:1-3 NIV

Angels are Near

 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

Psalm 91:11

A New Day will come

 

"May I honor --and trust--the processes of grief and of healing, knowing that  in time, a new day will come."

~Martha W. Hickman

"Duties of the Wind Are Few"

The Duties of the Wind are Few


The duties of the Wind are few,
To cast the ships, at Sea,
Establish March, the Floods escort,
And usher Liberty.

The pleasures of the Wind are broad,
To dwell Extent among,
Remain, or wander,
Speculate, or Forests entertain.

The kinsmen of the Wind are Peaks
Azof - the Equinox,
Also with Bird and Asteroid
A bowing intercourse.

The limitations of the Wind
Do he exist, or die,
Too wise he seems for Wakelessness,
However, know not I.                      
                                               

Emily Dickinson

Subtle Beauty Glenorchy

A Golden Day


The subtle beauty of this day
Hangs o'er me like a fairy spell,
And care and grief have flown away,
And every breeze sings, "all is well."
I ask, "Holds earth or sin, or woe?"
My heart replies, "I do not know."

Nay! all we know, or feel, my heart,
Today is joy undimmed, complete;
In tears or pain we have no part;
The act of breathing is so sweet,
We care no higher joy to name.
What reck we now of wealth or fame?

The past--what matters it to me?
The pain it gave has passed away.
The future--that I cannot see!
I care for nothing save today--
This is a respite from all care,
And trouble flies--I know not where.

Go on, oh noisy, restless life!
Pass by, oh, feet that seek for heights!
I have no part in aught of strife;
I do not want your vain delights.
The day wraps round me like a spell
And every breeze sings, "All is well."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Early Morning Light

Dawn


Day's sweetest moments are at dawn;
Refreshed by his long sleep, the Light
Kisses the languid lips of Night,
Ere she can rise and hasten on.
All glowing from his dreamless rest
He holds her closely to his breast,
Warm lip to lip and limb to limb,
Until she dies for love of him.                         


Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

The Road to Paradise

Glow of the evening sky at Lake Wakatipu on the road from Paradise outside of Queenstown, New Zealand.

Hear the Waters of Lake Wakatipu

This is Lake Wakatipu outside of Queenstown New Zealand.  The poem by William Butler Yeats describes the feelings one experiences at this beautiful lake.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in bee-loud glad.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

By William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

TSS Earnslaw Cruise Lake Wakatipu

 

The TSS Earnslaw is a 1912 Edwardian steam-powered boat where I took a 90 minute round trip cruise to the Walter Peak Farm.  It was a slow and pleasant experience of what steam boat transportation was like.  It is the only remaining commercial passenger-carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere. 

"Paradise Found" Beorn's Home

I finally found Paradise and I had to travel across the earth to find it in the South Island of New Zealand!  This is the home of Beorn the "skin-changer".  In "The Hobbit" Beorn is a fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien. He appears in The Hobbit as a "skin-changer", a man who could assume the appearance of a great black bear.  In The Hobbit film trilogy, Beorn is portrayed by Mikael Persbrandt in the films The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies.

 

 

I took a Jeep Safari tour of the locations where the film was made around Queenstown. The jeep's name was Thorin, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King under the Mountain.  The tour guide was very knowledgeable and we had a tea party in the forest a few miles down the road from Beorn's house.  It was an Hobbit "Adventure!"

Morning at Lake Wakatipu

 

 

On the road to Glenorchy, Lake Wakatipu is the jewel of the region.  A Gorgeous glistening lake and misty peaks.  Queenstown is a tourist town very much like St. Augustine is in Florida and Glenorchy is low-key and lies at the head of Lake Wakatipu.  It is a 40 mile drive northwest from Queenstown.

Shotover River at Skippers Canyon, Queenstown, New Zealand

 

 

Shotover River runs through Skippers Canyon and is popular for white water rafting.  There were five rafts preparing to go down river as we arrived at the bottom of the canyon.