Epilogue

Well, here I am back home. I was sad to hear about the avalanche trouble the subsequent NZ group had. Today I finally had time to card the fiber that I picked up at the Walter's Peak Sheep Station. Here it is:

Thank you Dorothy for snagging that bag on the lower right. It is very soft and will make some lovely yarn. I know I will think of you all when I knit and either wear or gift the project to someone.
I will be meeting up with my old friend from NZ again in San Francisco in about a month. In March I hope to set off for India and a new adventure. For now, I wish everyone happy travels and more wonders in your wandering. I know I will always look back fondly on the time I spent with all of you.

Intro to New Zealand

First day in New Zealand. After I arrived at Auckland and cleared Customs (!) Little-old-lady-with-backpack-who-doesn’t-do-drugs… found my friends and set off toward Tauranga via Paeroa, Waihi and not a few antique and second-hand shops. Ran across ( look Dad!) a convertible 1961 Series 62 metallic dusty rose Cadillac. How about that? Then a parade full of vintage cars stopped everyone in their tracks to watch as they went by. Quite impressive. Also spotted a volunteer fire department that seemed to belong to the old fire truck from the parade. Some small flowers crept out from beneath a building to take advantage of a splash of sunshine. Lunch at a little café and onward to more shops. Found a box of cool old glass bottles, a nice bracelet, a nice bracelet, comfy skirt and shirt. Sunday we drove around to look at the Mount by the beach in the fog and mist, then rented some videos including a good New Zealand one called “The Strength of Water” which we watched later. Monday morning off to soak in Ferndale Hot Pools then a drive through a lovely park with a wild waterfall whose name I will have to look up. Saw black swans so dark their feathers looked like carved coals. Beautiful rolling hills covered with green stuff and sheep. Very pleasing to the eye.

29 September - still...!

29 September – Still…

This morning in Wellington, we got up, ate breakfast, loaded our carefully packed bags onto the bus and went for a harbor tour. Must have been time for sailing lessons across from the hotel.

 Hamish Campbell took full advantage of it being our last day to cram in more information about New Zealand, earthquakes, geology, faults and such.





 Saw many boats, much greywacke ( greywacky) of all levels of degradation, lots of water, the memorial to the Wahine ferry victims who died in 1968, A bronze shark sculpture that prompted Albert to call for the final group photo.





 Picnic lunch and shell hunt. Off to the airport by 1pm for flight to Auckland. Last view of Wellington homes, modest, magnificent, wild, whimsical and well-placed; Premium land prices and judicious use of space.

Almost didn't see the magical lighting in the airport open space.

  Snacks in the airport and more wearable art before flight to L.A. Landed in L.A.( I would say terra firma but I was born in California) 7 hours earlier than we took off, then, still 3 hours earlier than we left Auckland, we will board yet another flight to COS. I would think this day will never end but I know eventually I will catch up to myself… as long as it isn’t me coming at myself from the opposite direction in the terminal…

pictures tonight.

More Wellington, please

27 September-More Wellington, please

A dizzying ride up the same winding streets as yesterday took us to the “little wind turbine” and some information about the 80 homes it can power, contrasting it with the “big wind turbines” that can power 300.
Unfortunate that here, too, the economics of scale seem to have been ignored, but I am not in charge so will not try to explain. On to Zealandia and its natural wonders. The highly engineered Possum-proof fence

does a good job of keeping most of the varmints out and along with the small animal traps inside are able to give the endangered animals here a fighting chance at survival at least for now. The tui, tuatara and takahe have a good friend in this park. Several actually.

 The plant life here was also being groomed to assure mostly indigenous species are available to the creatures. Some of the trees and beasts seem determined to grow so slowly and live so long that the efforts made to support them must become a generational effort. Hmm, maybe this could be a vehicle for sociological transformation… nah… who knows?

Back downtown walking around got further proof of New Zealand’s reputation as the 2^nd friendliest country. I asked two ladies in front of us at a crosswalk if they could direct us to the nearest Charbucks so a couple of the ladies could get a fix and was directed to follow along. They were going to a theater next door and walked us all the way there. Next, as we trudged through the rain wandering around downtown in the drizzle on the wrong side of the sidewalk, a nice woman walking the other direction turned to us smiling and said “Sorry about the weather!”  Just imagine those things happening one right after the other in your home town… well, my home town maybe.

We all met up in time for a guided tour of the (free) National Museum Te Papa Tongarewa where Bill kept us riveted to the exhibits with his wealth of knowledge about the natural and cultural history of New Zealand.

Oral traditions are illustrated at every turn, made real by their incorporation into art and the tools of daily living. Here the ancient and modern, Maori and Pakeha history of the country were blended in a perfect balance in a meeting place designed and crafted to symbolize the joining of two cultures into one national family. I cannot tell you how moved I was to witness this creation.


 Visitors are encouraged to create their own connection to the place by building their museum experience into their family tree.

We took some time for a Memories and Shared Highlights session since this would be the last time that all of us on the New Zealand leg of the trip not going on to Oz will have together to sit and talk before our departure for separate destinations on Saturday.

On another note I located my brain. Brain hat, my only piece of wearable art that was along for the trip, turns out to still be residing with Donna, who promised to take good care of it until she sends it home to me…

Before dinner, the illustrious John Martin, from the School of Government and Public Policy at Victoria University at Wellington, gave us a broad overview of New Zealand’s government structure and function, then joined us for dinner, showing us that he was not a stuffy bureaucrat but a lively and fascinating human being with a sense of humor to boot. Great fun, even if I did end up feeling I had hogged his company over the entrée.

Well on to Wellington

26 September – Well on to Wellington

  Two quick flights, or at least they seemed quick to me as I might have dozed off, and we landed, on one of the world’s shortest runways, in Wellington. After a speedy installation at the hotel, including getting lost between elevator 1 and elevator 2, it was off for a bus and walking tour of the Wellington heights and sights.

 There is a toilet stop conveniently located close to both the McDonald’s and the cable car station, one of which we patronized and the other of which we didn’t. Who’d have guessed? Amazing sights from across the bus-defying, breathtaking hilltops; streets that are really stairways; dumbwaiters on the outside of buildings and great Victorian architecture, all seen through raindrops and whipping winds, were our introduction to Wellington. Albert and I found the opportunity to attempt to use the local tardis, which conveniently let us know that we were already in the right place at the right time.




 Kind of a cross between San Francisco and a very windy place in Maine whose name escapes me. It never ceases to amaze me that all the cities here have found it possible to create beautiful green parks for people to visit and get away from the hustle and bustle, even if it is only on their walk to or from work. It was decided that a bus tour of the city lights would be quite foggy on the inside of the bus and too wet on the outside of the bus to be very much enjoyed by any of us and so John the driver got to take the evening off and have a beer. I hope it was a good one.