We're in the middle of a biological event! The Corpse Flower has bloomed in Auckland 🙂 Not that it does this rarely, but the last time it bloomed was in 2013. On the outside, this «flower» over three meters tall. I didn't get to the fragrant blooming period, so I can't tell you anything about the smell, but people who went to smell it say it doesn't stink much. Also in the post threw flower photos made in June-July this year (we have such a winter in the southern hemisphere). Since I don't know what all of them are called, the captions will just be numbers.

Back in early April during the big Easter vacation, I traveled to Gisbon to deliver a long-promised gift from Russia. As entertainment on the second day we went to the hot springs of Morere, where besides the springs there are several trails in the wildest New Zealand forest, of varying degrees of difficulty, with a climb of about 280 meters.

A test post to check out the blog extension. It's all on my phone, but I did my best, and there are some cool shots in there. 🙂 At the same time I tested MapMyWalk - a program that writes a track when you walk, but most importantly it shows the tracks of other walkers, and you can choose someone else's route and follow it. Very handy in unfamiliar terrain.

I went to the zoo to see the wonderful Kiwi bird and everyone else who would be there. In the end, I saw everyone, but not the Kiwi. In the enclosure where they live, an artificial night is created, and you can't see anything at all! The entrance ticket to the zoo costs $29, and for $85, you can become a special zoo lover and visit places inaccessible to ordinary people, like petting lemurs or feeding kangaroos. I would like to specifically mention the navigation in the zoo, which is just obscenely confusing. There are no signs on the territory at all, and I made three circles around the baboons before finding the passage to the Kiwi. At the entrance, everyone is given a map, but the map is schematic and does not reflect the actual distances and locations of the sections. Nothing is clear! But the map does have a schedule of when different animals are fed on which days, and you can watch shows all day.

Le Roys Bush, is a fairly well-known piece of nature in the northern part of Auckland. Known primarily for the difference in elevation from sea level to… I don't know how far it says to the highest point on Norhshore. 🙂 Historically, the trails in this forest were used by Maori to bring sea fishing products to their villages. Now these impenetrable thickets are used for walking, extreme running with high altitude gradients, well for wildlife watching.

In one of the days of fall, I went on a walking tour of Petropavlovsk, to see what live on the outskirts of the city. And the sniff didn't let me down, a full flash drive of impressions, thrash, gore and shards of the Soviet past. Walked no more or less than 20km, reached the big water, had some plushies and took the bus back home, where the subs were waiting for me at sunset…

Many amazing and unusual things can be found in Kamchatka. For example, you can catch flounder in the very center of the city, 500 meters from the government of Kamchatka Krai. You can climb a sopka and along the way learn that in 1854, Kamchatka could have been part of England… but ours defended it. You can ride your bike to the ocean and ride into an unknown military antenna of about 1,000 square meters… about «eating the flounder you caught on a fishing rod» I have no words. 🙂

A little wandering around the city, followed by crawling through the bushes on Mishenskaya Sopka. Mishenka is the highest part of the city, 380 meters. there's a TV tower and Beeline antennas on it.

Boat trips in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky are one of the popular tourist attractions. Duration of walks is different, there are for 3 days with fishing, tents and other joys, there is with an exit to the ocean, there are short one-day walks along Avacha Bay. That's just the short one we were on. From the sights we were shown the famous rocks «Three Brothers», which, according to legend, protect the bay, and standing on its shore Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, from tsunamis, which often occur in the Pacific Ocean.

To be in Kamchatka, and not climb volcanoes - it's a shame shame shame and step march to fix! Especially since some jeep access is only open for 3-4 weeks in August, the rest of the time there is either snow or rivers-lakes from the melting of this snow. One of such volcanoes is the active volcano Mutnovsky, which last erupted relatively recently, in 2000. Now in the crater you can observe and smell high-temperature fumaroles (this is when steam from under the ground with a temperature of 150-300 degrees Celsius). In a word must see!