My husband and I were on holiday in Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand from April 8th to April 17th 2008.

It was autumn here in NZ and while the North Island had severe storms and floods all week we celebrated such wonderful weather down south – coolish but so refreshing and with lovely sunny days. . . And we got to see some snow.

Native New Zealand animals and plants.

New Zealand only has a couple of native mammals and they are bats, so I don't think you'll find many mammals in this theme...

Metrosideros excelsa / Pohutukawa trees are coastal trees that grow in New Zealand. They thrive near the sea, easily withstand strong winds, salt spray and drought and are rarely found inland. The tree hardly ever grows straight and is more likely to have many short trunks with tortuous branches. Usually found growing on cliffs with the branches sometimes reaching in the water (occasionally even found with oysters growing on the branches) and the great roots spread along the cliff-face above.

Many colours, many places, many styles, all beautiful...

Peafowl are native to India, Burma, Java. Ceylon, Malaya and Congo.

Peafowl are very hardy birds and can live 40 to 50 years.
The term 'peafowl’ refers to the species name.
The male is called the ‘peacock’
The female is called the ‘peahen’
Offspring under the age of one year are called ‘peachicks’.

Peafowl come in a wide variety of colours including blue, green, white, light brown, and purple.

Ferns occur in great abundance in New Zealand – there are nearly 200 native species alone occurring everywhere from the coast through to the country’s alpine regions. Then there are the fern allies – including club-mosses and fork-ferns that have an even longer fossil history than ferns.