Highlights!

Time is screaming by!  We are now already over our half-way mark.  So I’ll give you a highlights list of the last couple of weeks!

1.  Loved Melbourne!  Loved the neighborhoods!  Loved the energy!  Loved the tennis!  Loved seeing Rachel Perry after all these years and meeting her gorgeous family!  Loved the pianos scattered all over town for anyone to play!  One of my favorite bits though was how unbelievably clean the city is.  Tony and I were watching a street performer (as we often do) on the South Bank.  To get comfy, I sat down on the pavement.  When I did that, it struck me – the streets and sidewalks are spotless.

2.  The New Zealand Adventure begins!  In Auckland we had the most glorious treat.  We were invited to stay with Granny Annie!  Tony’s former PA, Natalie Coveney, insisted that we stay with her Granny Annie.  As we had heard about the fabulous Granny Annie for years, we were delighted!

Granny Annie and Gang!

Granny took us to the Maritime Museum, where we found relics from the Royal New Zealand Navy’s ships.  This apparatus was utilized when the American’s tales became too tall.

3.  Kerikeri was such a delight we came for one night and stayed for three.  This was the historic portion of our trip.  Nearby the Waitangi  Treaty was signed.  This is when the Maori people signed over the ownership of their lands to the English, which might have been a bit puzzling to the indigenous folks because they didn’t really appreciate this concept of “owning” land. Now days land and money is given back to the Maori as the treaty was broken soon after it was signed.

There was amazing hiking all around Kerikeri.  New Zealand is stunningly beautiful!!!  There always seems to be a forest,  a cave (with glow worms), a waterfall, a mountain or a river around the corner!

Several gorgeous hikes started right outside our little motel….

By the way, allow me to take the time to tell you I now have a new love…the motel, the motor court or the motor inn!  The institution that would have lined Route 66 or even Highway 70 (for my Nashville friends) a few decades ago.  These little motels have housed us across Australia and New Zealand!  They are typically owned by a couple that welcome us,  direct us (better than any concierge), then they clean our room (complete with a handy-dandy strip guaranteeing a sanitary potty), clean the pool, water the plants….  As someone who spent several thousand nights in Marriott Courtyards and Hampton Inns, never getting closer to the owner than that painting of  Mr JW Marriott that adorns the lobby of his hotels, I’m so excited about this new “discovery”!

4.  Hobbiton!  From Kerikeri we went to Matamata (so many towns are so nice they must be named twice), home to Peter Jackson’s vision of The Shire.

4.  Next we made our way to Lake Taupo where I had the opportunity to check yet another item off my bucket list!   To ride in float/sea plane!  This was one of those totally cool things that I’ve dreamt of doing since I was a little kid and watched “adventure” movies.  We took off from Lake Taupo, landed in Waikato River, then hiked through a geothermal field called Orakaei Korako.  When we took off again from the middle of the river, we barreled, swinging side to side.  Utterly amazing!  It was a fantasy come true!

5.  Since it’s a geothermal environment, a mud bath is mandatory.

We finished off the North Island with a visit to the very livable city of Wellington.  In Wellington we saw the second installment of the Hobbit movies in the very theatre that was lovingly restored for the world premier of the Return of the King (the third installment of the Lord of the Ring trilogy).

From Wellington we board the ferry for the South Island…..Even devoted North Islanders say the South Island is EVEN MORE beautiful!