Because We Can

Nice view out the window this morning of the rain. New Zealand is so green, and when one tour member asked why the reply was, rain, plenty of rain. It looks like it it is getting greener by the minute. They’re called Bircher shots, and are they ever good. We have a number of things to try and duplicate when we return to the States. Another thing to like about New Zealand, a forty-five passenger bus for the fourteen on us. The current Maori monarch is Te Arikinui Tūheitia Paki. This is his official residence, Tūrongo House at Tūrangawaewae marae in the town of Ngaruawahia. And if that is all Maori to you, you’re in good company because it also is to both of us. With a length of 264 miles the Waikato is New Zealand’s longest river. The more we travel the more we learn all things are relative. Another of those amazing photos that are found on Linda’s camera. By the looks of the first two X’ed out drawings there is a difference in how cultures “go”. In the award w...

Something different for breakfast besides the usual this morning. The shot glass holds a barley grass detox. I have no idea what that means but now I have a better understanding of what it means to be a cow, including being fattened up. The indigenous people of new Zealand were the Maori, and on the whole they were and are treated much differently than were and are the aboriginal peoples of Australia. This symbolic Maori arch is in Aotea Square in Auckland’s CBD. What you see under the arch is where people gathered upon hearing about the terrorist attacks in Paris. I hadn’t mentioned it, but we saw the Sydney Opera House illuminated in red, white and blue, though it was too faint to take a photo. Also the French flag was flying atop the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Then it was off by city bus to met a Maori speaker. The CBD seems to almost have more buses than cars on the streets. Of course when it came for our group to catch a bus it took almost ten minutes for one to come alon...

    Tabasco Sauce, making scrambled eggs taste better around the world.     Our in room porter placing our bags outside the room door. Not really. Ms. Forgets Our Vitamins did it again, only today they were in her luggage which was packed and outside our door. With the world’s slowest known hotel elevators it was a quick retrieval. Why is it on the days I ask if she has the vitamins, she does have them, but on the few days I forget to ask her, she has forgotten them. Are we a perfectly matched pair or what? Or maybe we are perfectly mismatched pair. Perplexed Bob.     Troy, we will miss you.     All the Australian money we had left.       Into the charity box at the airport it goes.     Our last glimpse of Australia was remarkably similar to our first glimpse five weeks ago.     Another great Qantas meal.     Hot tea and an ice cream bar. it doesn’t get any better than th...