New Zealand

New Zealand was beautiful. In the short time I was there, I fell in love with the place. We stayed at the Windsor, a charming little bed and breakfast in Christchurch. This is a picture of the Windsor. 

There was a dog at the Windsor named Miss Winny Windsor. She was adorable. One of those hotdog dogs. She would sneak into the dining room looking for food and petting. She was clearly “well fed” and living the good life. Miss Winny….well….she just IS. I have to say I fell in love with her. She would trot around everywhere, kind of a cross between a wobble and a jog. Her body is so dense and round and long, she looked like a cute little sausage with itty bitty legs. Here is Miss Winny busy at work, just existing.

Miss Winny again, ten minutes later that day. She is a busy little thing.

There are a significant number of bed and breakfasts in the area, more so than larger hotels. There was at least one major hotel that I saw, kind of an eye sore compared to the incredible architecture in the area. The overall feel is quite unique, sort of an old world English meets Classical French Caribbean. There are lots of proper and ornate English style buildings mixed in with some colorful, almost tropical style houses and structures. There were also several churches and towers in the city with a fantastic gothic style. Lots of parks, fountains, squares, etc. Here I am standing in front of one of the Cathedrals. It's almost a shame to see the massive modern buildings in the background.

This is a photograph from part of a fountain within the city. It is composed of tiles that were painted by the local school children. I thought it was beautiful. Can you find the tile with the volcano? That is one of my favorites. I also like the yellow kiwi bird. 

I went to an open market on Sunday. Lots of good food…Indian, Greek, Chinese, Hungarian, Lebanese. Fantastic woodworking, pottery, sweaters, candles, everything. I bought a pair of boots. Yikes. I had to. I have tried on pairs of Ugg boots in the US, the ones that are made out of sheep wool, incredibly comfortable. But, I have never wanted to pay for them, just because the celebrity association has made them so expensive that the pricing is ridiculous. Well, I found a booth with boots MUCH better than the stupid Ugg brand, made with local sheep skin. Absolutely gorgeous, hand-made, much higher quality than Ugg. Plus, they were only $100 New Zealand, which is $70 US. Those boots would have been over $200 in the States. I love them. Very comfortable. So far I have worn them almost every day in the lab (if you didn’t catch that by now, I am writing this as an update, many days after the fact. So, don’t pay attention to dates, I am just sticking in arbitrary dates so the photos will fall in the right order. I didn’t have email access in New Zealand, at least where I could upload photos, and the first week on the ice was filled with activities like snow school and the first busy flight days….more on that later.)

I went running in and around the Botanical Gardens and another close park. It reminded me of the scene out of Mary Poppins, where she held that ridiculous ruffle umbrella while she hoped over that bridge and then floated on that turtle. I literally ran over a gorgeous bridge over a river with willow trees and flowers everywhere, just like the one in the movie. I didn’t see any turtles though. Shucks. This photograph is of a small park in the city showing a typical fountain and flower patch.

I got an incredible amount of joy just from waking around the city in the warm sun, looking at all the beautiful flora and shops. I had the best coffee of my life at a little place called the Yellow Rooster, or something like that. Medved discovered the place on an early morning walk in the square. My coffee was so beautiful I had to photograph it, and Medved’s as well. Liz got tea, which came as full loose leaf, it smelled wonderful. Lots of mint. This photograph is of Liz, Myself, and Medved. 

This photograph is of my beautiful coffee. I will definitely be returning for another. 

In short, New Zealand was lovely, at least from what I saw of Christchurch. I can see why my advisor is moving there after she retires. They (Terry, my advisor, and Peter, her husband) have a house not too far from Christchurch. Mike says it is a 2 hour drive, but only because the roads are all small and winding. I hear it is lovely. Hope to see it on a return trip.

I just read over what I have posted thus far, and realized I have used the word beautiful an excessive amount of times. A bit ridiculous really. I will try and be more creative in the future…..lovely, picturesque, scenic, delightful, charming, wonderful, exquisite, pleasing, superb, magnificent. Look for these words in the near future.