A tale of two cities - city two - Auckland

Two days after we got back from Christchurch we left home and headed for Auckland - driving this time. One flying trip was enough for me. Auckland had that buzz about it that you expect to find in a big city. That buzz that I thought was missing from Christchurch. Hopefully that buzz will return to them soon.


We stayed in the suburb of Ponsonby, just far enough out of the central city to be away from the sky scrapers. But close enough to have these views.

In an amazing suburban apartment.

With views looking out over Ponsonby to the sunset. We were just far enough away from the main street not to hear the traffic, but close enough to enjoy the best chip shop, the beautiful cafes and the very interesting people.

Lots of cool houses to "Oh look at that one" over.

I nipped out in the morning for a stroll to take some snaps of interesting stuff.

The church window is the only daisy I noticed, I am sure there were lots more I just did not see them.

There was lots of lovely food. So lovely my son had double helpings of crepe and had to be dragged away still asking for more.

The reason for our trip was to see some dinosaurs in the Walking with Dinosaurs spectacular. And it was a spectacular. And it was really worth it - our youngest found the whole experience amazing. I don't think he has ever been that quiet, ever.


And just to finish it all off we passed this caravan at the side of the road on the way back home. I wonder if it had had its tyres pinched!

A tale of two cities - city one - Christchurch

Last week we spent a few days down in Christchurch, visiting my eldest son. When I got home and downloaded my photos there were none of Christchurch itself. I did not feel I could take any snaps of the city, it just felt wrong. There is definitely a strong atmosphere in the city, an attitude different from any city I have visited before. So different from our last visit. This was highlighted by the fact we had a trip to Auckland two days after our Christchurch trip. The atmosphere in Auckland was the normal big city atmosphere, so different from where we had just come from.
On the first day of our trip to the South Island we had a drive down to Ashburton. I pretty little Kiwi town. With an interesting little museum and gallery. In the museum was a display of honey pots. I used to collect them, but they are very rare here, making them expensive. I only enjoyed collecting them when they were cheap.

Peter and the giant salmon at Rakai.

The bunch of air force personnel above are most of my family, the middle one is missing and replaced by the eldest's girlfriend. We were on a visit to the Air Force Museum at Wigram Air Base. When you go through to the cold hangers you can borrow a coat to wear. They look like they just escaped from an episode of Dr Who. The boys really enjoyed there trip to this museum, in fact they managed to spend almost three hours there. Not so much fun for Catherine and I, but well worth the visit. I would recommend a visit if you get a chance.

The exhibition of a house in war time was interesting. I really loved the colour of the hydrangea wallpaper.

Above is a parachute silk wedding dress, one of the more interesting things there.

Due to the volcanic ash clouds we had to fly really, really low on the way home. Way to low for comfort in my case. But the view of the snow capped mountains was stunning. Almost distracted me from my over worrying at the flying malarkey.

That secret project

My eldest son will be 21 soon (where did all those years go). I made him a quilt as part of his birthday pressie. His nickname at school was Scotsman, so I thought he would appreciate some tartan. Thanks to my mum for sending over the fabric.