ADIEU, NEW ZEALAND...

SUNDAY EVENING, MARCH 28, 2011 - AUCKLAND AIRPORT VICINITY - As we prepare to leave tomorrow and say goodbye to rainy, overcast and humid Auckland (that's how it was when I arrived here last November, too), I have been thinking about a list of the things I have enjoyed about New Zealand--this is what it looks like:

THINGS I LIKED ABOUT NEW ZEALAND:

·         Warm sun during my normal winter time

·         Beaches

·         Shells

·         Glaciers viewed from a helicopter

·         Birds (especially the song birds)

·         Fiordlands

·         Walking tracks

·         Friendly people from all over the world

·         Great wines

·         Te Matukua oysters, Green lipped mussels & individual meat pies (a shout out to Jade Lee, a Kiwi friend of Jon's living in the US right now)

·         Ferns, ferns and more ferns (every size and everywhere!)

·         Wildflowers growing alongside the roads

·         Vineyards on hillsides

·         Rolling hills

·         Surprise & unpaved roads

·         Beautiful colored butterflies

·         Maori maraes & culture

·         Lighthouses

·         Old buildings

·         Woolworth’s Home Brand Chocolate Chips cookies (the crunchy ones!)

·         Solid Gold & oldies radio stations

·         Tip Top “Hokey Pokey” ice cream

·         Free library wi fi

·         Seeing more cows and sheep than I ever had in my life

·         Deer farms

·         Alpacas

·         Diverse country—dry to jungle to beaches to mountains with snow

·         Pristine lakes (example is Wanaka Lake)

·         Tasman Sea

·         Sunsets

·         Waiheke Island living

·         Fresh fruit (oranges, kiwi, berries,apples, pears, plums, watermelon, pineapple)

·         Olive trees

·         Pohutakawa trees in bloom

·         Great music and musicians

Some shots from our Te Whau Vineyard day:

So we spent our last week walking the local beaches and then a day spent out at Te Whau Vineyard...we took the local bus as far as we could then walked the paved road past the alpacas again and all the views--about an hour's walk to the vineyard.   There we celebrated our successul trip, drank my first bottle of $85 Chardonnay, ate artisan breads with pesto and fresh olives, oysters lightly coated in tempura, did a tasting of some red wines and followed with a beef fillet dinner and dessert!   This took a few hours and was all soooooo tasty and delightful.  We met the resident "cat", Mrs. Merlot, who slept on a chair in the sunshine and then we walked back to Rocky Bay via the "bush track" up and down hills, along small remote beaches and getting some spectacular views that we would have missed on the paved road.  It took about an hour and a half to trek back via the track but was worth it.   What a way to end our run...........signing off now:

Sue &

Geoff (outside Te Whau Restaurant & Winery)

xo