Considering the absolute travesty on the Gulf, it's hard to believe there are any places left in the world that haven't been marred by humanity. But there are.
I was digging through my photography bag today, and I found a DVD I bought in New Zealand. It's breathtaking beyond words.
The video is a cinematic journey into the heart of Fiordland, one of the more remote places on earth and the last place we visited in NZ. To get there, it took a couple hours by car from Queenstown, plus an hour on a boat, plus an hour on a bus, plus another hour on another boat. Seriously.
It was worth it.
Most of Fiordland is so remarkably untouched, it feels like you shouldn't be there. I was looking around for Mother Nature herself, thinking she might swoop down and bellow something angry at us. But apparently Mother Nature gives tour groups a few permission slips each day so people can see a place where she lives alone and unbothered.
Above is a short clip of the video, just so you can get a sense of this majestic location. You can order the DVD at Fiordland Cinema. If you're having a bad day, pop that thing in and your worries will disappear for a while.
New Zealand is not without its environmental problems, but one thing was abundantly clear while we were there. For the most part, New Zealanders guard their land, air and water as if it were their own breath. They have an economic motivation to do so since tourism is a huge industry, but I daresay you can drink from any lake, river and stream in that country without a shred of concern. I won't even swim in the Pacific here in LA. I've tried twice but got sick both times.
I live in a city that was best described by songwriter Dan Bern in his song Wasteland: "Every single block, looked like every single block, looked like every single block, looked like every... single.. block."
New Zealand's unrivaled geographic diversity was a joy to discover.
The photo above is from Doubtful Sound in Fiordland. The water is almost black, but not from an oil spill, I assure you. It's just that deep.
All over New Zealand, we found water colors that we didn't think could exist without photoshop. Lo and behold, that's what water looks like when it's clean! I had no idea.
Meanwhile, this tidbit from a NY Times story about the Gulf spill says a lot: Four out of the five oil companies that shared their spill response plans with Congress included language on how they would protect walruses in the Gulf of Mexico.
There are no walruses in the Gulf of Mexico.
Anyway, my photos hardly do New Zealand justice, but it's nice to be reminded that there are still places where there's no need for response plans to protect phantom wildlife.
And the only thing that spills into the water is... water.
No comments:
Post a Comment