7000 Wonders
A Travel Blog
Did you think there were only Seven Wonders in the world? Years of traveling have convinced me that there are at least a thousand times more. Quirky people, hilarious situations, breathtaking views and sites, inspiring ideas.
I created this blog to share some of those wonders with my fellow human-beings who are curious about our wonderful world
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May 8, 2021
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I have seen many trees and was impressed by quite a few of them – yet never as much as by that Kiwi tree with an allegedly typical Maori name “pohutukawa”.
The closest image doing justice to it would probably be of an upturned volcano that is erupting and frozen at the same time. That beauty can be experienced but very rarely, too, because the trees are blooming only between November and January, mid-December being the period of their peak activity. This activity results in what New Zealanders describe as “Red Christmas”. The extended Red Christmas I was so incredibly lucky to savour for almost two full weeks, has become one of my most stunning lifetime experiences, and that's why I decided to express my gratitude by featuring that amazing tree as my blog's welcoming image.
May 15, 2021
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On a Sunday morning residents of a quiet neighbourhood in the middle of Wellington were woken up by blood-curdling battle cries. As they looked out their windows they saw a man attacking an imaginary enemy with a sword in the middle of a completely empty street. No wonder that somebody called the police. When the police arrived, the following dialogue took place
“You must surrender your sword and follow me to the police station”.
“I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. I am the king of Gondor and I can’t take orders from a cop”!
That dialogue helps to explain, why the "king of Gondor"'s sword instructor regarded him as the best student he had ever had. If you also consider that the swordsman learned Sindarin, the Elvish language, and practiced it daily with Liv Tyler who played Aragorn’s sweetheart Princess Arwen, you'll fully appreciate why the Lord of the Rings' director Peter Jackson was so keen to have certain Viggo Mortensen on his team.
May 22, 2021
Exceptional as it was, Viggo Mortensen's devotion to his character was anything but an exception - and both "elves" and "hobbits" were every bit as devoted as "men".
For instance, Sean Astin signed the contract for the part of Sam Gamgee, flew back to the States and immediately began his preparations. When he returned to New Zealand after 6 months of extremely hard work, Peter Jackson went to pick him up at the airport. The very moment they met, Peter felt furious. ‘Sean, have you EVER read your contract?!’ The embarrassed actor had to admit that he had, in fact, done no such thing. He was too busy going to a gym to stay in good shape. Peter nodded, produced a copy of the contract and shoved it into Sean’s hand. “Read here”, he pointed at a highlighted clause. Sure enough, the clause made it very clear that Sam Gamgee was a typical portly hobbit – and that’s how the actor was supposed to look by the time the film shooting began. “You’ll live the next two weeks on nothing but noodles, cakes and muffins,” Jackson hissed “or that part will go to someone else!”
May 29, 2021
About everybody can enjoy and admire eccentric actors utterly devoted to their profession but to work with them and actually succeed is an altogether different kettle of fish. To rephrase a well-known saying, it takes one - who is even more creatively unconventional - to guide one. Here is a typical story featuring One Man Who Ruled Them All:
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“…there was this big tree right above Bag End. One morning Peter looked at it and suddenly he had his doubts. Something looked wrong about that tree. He therefore decided it had to be replaced. He was looking for a similar tree, just one that would feel right. Peter found what he needed not far from Matamata, a 29-ton oak. The rest was pretty straightforward: the tree was cut down, transported to the site and placed right where the old tree had been. The only problem was the leaves that didn’t survive the rehoming – so Peter asked his crew to paint about 2000 leaves and attach them to the tree one by one!”
June 5, 2021
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The Lord of the Rings had, in a way, reimagined New Zealand, but by the time the movie was produced, the country had already been around for quite a while. Yet, natural caves known today as Waitomo and Ruakuri had existed for just a little bit longer.
The Great Pyramid of Giza has survived for almost 28 centuries, and it is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Just to compare, Ruakuri cave began to form about 30 million years ago, and its stalactites alone – judging by their sizes – are more than 200 thousand years old! Slow growers, they have nevertheless wasted no time in experimenting with shapes – and step by step, 10,000 years by 10,000 years, they would fill and transform the space around them, giving food to…nobody’s imagination as yet. Ruakuri was well prepared for its first visitors because it so happened that it had not been discovered until an unspecified date in the 16th century when a Maori warrior incidentally fell into it as he was escaping a pack of wild dogs. The very dogs that gave the cave its name because “ruakuri” literally means “a den of dogs” in Maori language.
June 12, 2021
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Stalactite caves are impressive but, at least, they can be found in quite a few countries. In comparison, glowworm caves are not only completely unique but they are also endemic: 5 out of the world’s 10 most famous glowworm caves are located in New Zealand (4 of the remaining 5 are in Australia – so, glowworms are clearly quite partial to this particular area!), and Waitomo caves are at the very top of the list. Among other things, they owe that spot to their very special boat ride.
...suddenly there is no artificial light, and the blackness is finally complete… but for the dancing light pouring from above. Mundane words are totally helpless to describe the effect, poetry might give it a try – and here is a line by an 18th-century poet Mikhail Lomonosov: “A chasm opened, full of stars. An endless chasm, and the stars uncountable…”. No wonder those words were written by a classical poet – long gone are those who were able to see what he saw and wrote about. Ever since, electric light has irreparably corrupted the experience, and the true meaning of “starlit” has essentially been lost.
Of course, glowworms are no stars but they are still natural beings (as opposed to artificial ones), and the light they produce might be the closest imitation of what was guiding primeval people through the night. That is why one had an eerie feeling that the boat had somehow turned into a time-machine, hence the awed silence punctuated only by rhythmic splashes of the water pierced by the oars. The daylight, when it finally reappeared, was greeted by a collective sigh of…regret? Or was it relief? There might have been both because the experience, short as it was, was also extremely powerful. I would even define it as a “surgery of the soul”, one that leaves almost tangible memories instead of scars.
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June 19, 2021
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Less than 14,000 km from Ruakuri and Waitomo caves, there is another natural phenomenon that is much more famous than - and strikingly different from - glowworms, but similarly striking, at the same time.
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Niagara Falls is a wonder everybody has heard of, while millions have seen colourful postcards devoted to it, or even visited the famous site itself. They were taken into deep tunnels running behind the Falls and almost brought amidst the whirlpool itself by the “Maid of the Mist” (and the mist is so thick as if the whole mass of this perfectly chilly water were boiling day and night). A platform was built to suit those preferring to socialize and take pictures – and nobody is allowed there without a wet-resisting cloak because the platform is more soaked with water than a low ship deck. The Falls have for decades been viewed from every possible angle; yet, I had a fleeting impression that they had remained as new and mysterious as ever - that “Rapidly Motionless Wall” breaking apart every single second and getting instantaneously rebuilt out of water.
June 26, 2021
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Like a true Artist, Nature has forever experimented with shapes, forms, directions and even temperatures. Going to extremes and creating opposites has clearly been an integral part of those experiments - that's how geysers appeared alongside waterfalls.
New Zealand is not necessarily perceived as a "Geyser Country" (that distinction probably goes to Iceland), but even so, the Pohutu geyser in Rotorua is every bit as famous as its Icelandic "brothers" with completely unpronounceable names. Partially, it owes its fame to being the largest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere and reaching as high as 30 meters , predominantly - to the well-deserved nickname "The most reliable geyser on Earth". All it needed to do to deserve that nickname was to have erupted at least once an hour (sometimes twice) for weeks and months on end! The sight of steaming water, flying around for many minutes, is so spellbinding that even royalty and many other famous people would look forward to paying Pohutu a visit.
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July 3, 2021
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While many places on Earth are famous for their natural wonders, Rangitoto Island near Auckland is mostly renowned for what it doesn't have! Namely, roads (apart from a winding stairway leading away from the shoreline and up to the remnants of a WWII naval fort offering a spectacular view of Auckland’s North Shore and of Rangitoto Channel that connects the mainland with the island), mammals and...people. To be precise, there are quite a few tourists in the morning but when the last ferry leaves for Auckland, Rangitoto turns into a phantom island as there are no locals. In fact, it's easier to list what IS on Rangitoto - and the list is extremely short. The living part of it consists of birds and invertebrates.
Lacking in so many respects, the island needed something extraordinary to make up for its deficiencies – so Nature itself had seemingly anticipated the problem and solved it in advance by making sure that Rangitoto’s very appearance would be a real blast. Or rather several blasts because it was formed by a series of volcanic eruptions, the first of them happening about 6000 years ago. As a result, even nowadays much of the island’s territory is covered with distinctive black rocks that provide next to no sustenance for plants. Yet the latter persevere, and their efforts bring about a number of shrubs and short trees that come in all hues of green, as well as in some shades of silver and yellow. The combination of colours might be not that uncommon on its own but, juxtaposed with millennia-old blackness of the rocks, it turns into an unending feast for the eyes and a rebellious painter’s dream.
July 10, 2021
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Nature is the ultimate Artist that is perfect by definition. Man can but strive for perfection - yet, since time immemorial there have been remarkable individuals trying to emulate Nature...
Simply put, the Giant’s House has all the makings of a fairy-tale, starting with its very name. Of course, there has never been a Giant there but a little girl thought there was one: “Look, that house is so big. It must belong to a giant!”. The child was wrong but…she was right at the same time: Josie Martin, the owner of the 19th century house, used to be a conventional painter when she found a few pieces of broken china in her garden and used them for her doorstep. The result of that little experiment encouraged Josie so much that she decided to add china to the list of materials she would work with. Gradually it turned into the material, and a transformation of the artist was complete. Soon enough she became a true giant of the art of mosaic. While giants or other mythical creatures, children and transformations are all traditional components of a proper fairy-tale, one might argue that its key ingredient is magic – and ultimately that is exactly what draws people from all over the world to the shrine of mosaic art in Akaroa. It seems that the old house itself, some trees and flowers – not even all of them! – and visitors are the only substances in the garden that are not made of china. Everything else there is a rolling feast of wildest imagination possible where objects of all shapes and colours compete and combine to dazzle, amaze, wow and spellbind every living being that happens to be in the area.