The South Island of New Zealand is well known for the beautiful autumn leaves. Exotic trees like oak trees and maples change colour in the autumn. The leaves turn many colours: yellow, orange, red or scarlet before they turn brown and fall on the ground. The further south you go, the better the colours. Also, autumn weather can be very pleasant – cool mornings and evenings but sunny later in the day.
Most New Zealand native trees do not lose their leaves. They are evergreen. Many exotic trees are deciduous – they are bare in the winter.
New Zealand gardens and parks have plants from all over the world. In the far north, many plants are sub-tropical but in the south, plants that enjoy cold weather do well.
Questions
In your country, do you have trees which change their colour in the autumn?
Vocabulary
Exotic plants are foreign, not native plants.
Grammar
“The further south you go, the better the colours.” This is a very useful structure. Here is the grammar: the more …, the more… The + comparative …, the + another comparative.
e.g. “The more you have, the more you want.” “The more you eat, the fatter you get.”