Middle Earth to Jurassic Park/ Katie's Trip

Katie alighted on New Zealand soil with a smile and big hugs ready to explore this beautiful country.

A few hours later she jumped aboard the ferry to Devonport for a quick walk about town, hike up Mount Victoria with panoramic views of the harbor and a delicious lunch at our favorite Devonport cafe.  The next day was on to Middle Earth where the enchantment of Hobbiton captured her heart and sense of the magical.

                                                             "The Cottage"

                                                               "Cheers"

                                                                "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"

And then if was off to Wairere Falls ---- the highest falls on the North Island ---- right there in Matamata.  Now there will be tales of this hike --- something to do with steps and having to redo steps because someone thought we had gone past the viewing point ---- the number of these steps varies from 130 to 250 one way as the story takes dips and turns.  You will have to weigh the truth of such tales though passing hikers did comment about whether we would redo the steps since the waterfalls viewing stations was a mere 10 minutes after the steps.  This picture reveals our decision.

 
                                                              Jurassic Park ????

Moving away from a movie set, our next day took us up to the Bay of Islands. We of course stopped for tea in Warkworth before heading to Uretiti Beach.

                               Will they beat the wave?  Maybe we still are on a movie set!

We travelled on to Paihia where we explored the town and crashed for the night.  The morning found us kayaking around a small island in the bay.  Katie and I maneuvered a two seater and David was the lone wolf.  (Check out the boat shoes --- oh yeah!)

We embarked on a  short car ferry ride across to what now is called Russell.  The Maori name is Kororareka which means "sweet penguin".  And no --- we didn't see any penguins.
                       Ahhhhhhhhhhhh ---  This is the life as David exclaims, "I'm on holiday!"  We loved the peace and tranquility of this small island so extended out stay another night.

                                                          View from Flagpole Hill

Tea time before exploring the Russell Museum which was full of Maori artifacts, a model of Cook's Endeaver, whaling artifacts and a historic movie.   Katie and I were impressed with the size of the stuffed kiwi --- apparently they can be quite large.

 

                                                                 My tree fort!

          I took a rest with my bunny friend on the way to Longs Beach.  He is now living in my tree fort.

I picked these two up on the way to Longs Beach also ---- they were reluctant to leave their estate ------

                                                   Finally --- Longs Beach

       Climbing over the lava rocks at the far end of Longs Beach.  Check out the color of this water….
                                     

And now dinner at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel and Restaurant known for "refreshing rascals and reprobates since 1827" ---- a lovely establishment on the strand on the waterfront.

Katie's trip to be continued in the next blog --------

Butterflies to Sunsets

I will start this week's blog with a butterfly right outside my kitchen window.  Mike might not be able to send me a North American Orange Breasted Robin but he can send me an orange butterfly.

Although December is the official beginning of winter, this was a cooler and very wet week.  I am beginning to understand when kiwi's describe their weather as four seasons in one day.

Midweek we attended the opening for the student art show at Uxbridge.  It was a kick!

David and I explored the oldest suburb in Auckland and supposed favorite shopping spot of Bill Clinton (You have to love those tidbits) on Saturday.  We went to the famed Elephant House, a wonderful gift shop with products made in New Zealand.  After tea we bimbled up to Holy Trinity Church which is just beautiful and were treated to a choir practice.  Then on to the famous Rose Gardens.

The pix of the garden does not do it justice.  Needless to say what I thought was going to be an easy Saturday browsing through shops along the brick lanes of Parnell and having lunch turned into hours of walking and exploring a unique area near downtown Auckland.

Sunday proved to be one of those 4 seasons in 1 day type days so David and I headed for Mission Bay and walked along the harbor toward downtown Auckland.  We were amazed at a gentleman swimming  in the Bay.  The ocean was rough with lots of waves.  This lone swimmer was several meters from the beach and swimming parallel to the beach.  He appeared to be going nowhere --- that is how strong the tides were.  Eventually reassured of his safety we continued walking.  There were also a number of folks sail boarding --- it was a perfect day for that and several even had a race.

View of Devonport from Mission Bay.

My new home choice facing the Bay --- there's room for everybody …..  I especially love the clock on top!

Minutes after this pix we were running back under this incredible tree for protection from the rain.

And Sunday night we orchestrated the Candle Lighting here in Howick at the Old Selwyn Church.  Here's a pix as we were just setting up.

There were only 9 brave souls for this first candle lighting so we all stood around the tray on the table in front and lit our candles and put them in the sand tray, did the readings,  listened to music and shared about our children.  This old 1800's church was a great setting to start the wave of lights that will continue for 24 hours across the globe.

And an appropriate ending to this blog requires no words.