NEW ZEALAND – Our Antipodes, the other end of the world, and yet the impression
of having already seen much of it in one way or another, only
here placed in another context.
Déjà vue.
Unpolluted, tidy landscapes: Tenerife, Tuscany, Switzerland and
Norway, all next to each other. Only that the rainforest extends
right up to the glacier. Landscapes of clear, self-confident
beauty.
Cliffs with surging turquoise. But then, after all, something unfamiliar:
volcanoes, garish green, sulphur yellow, smoking and
belching crater lakes. Hot, steaming earth, which demonstrates
how thin the skin is over the red-hot, semi-fluid centre of our
planet. Geysers spewing out water and steam, which, upon
flowing away, turns everything which does not manage to avoid
contact, into a magical world, covered in minerals and hardened
to stone.
White Island, the unpredictable volcanic peak which rises visibly
out of the sea beyond the Bay of Plenty and, when it erupts,
regularly takes with it those who are too careless.
Explorations by boat and also by helicopter. Treks around the
edge of craters with protective mask and butterflies in one´s
stomach. Panoramic views down into the furious mouth of hell.
The need for more, which later led me to Hawaii.
Frank Rödel, 2005
