Travel

super green! We mainly drove along the shore Today was a travel day. We headed out from Christchurch early, enjoying some lovely scenery along the way. I didn’t get any photos of the “venison on the hoof” that is farmed in New Zealand – maybe tomorrow. …

Our breakfast today at the hotel definitely highlighted the fact we are in the “breadbasket” of New Zealand. It included an actual full honeycomb just pulled out of the hive, plus gorgeous yellow new cream. This reminded me of when I lived in England – …

Today was mainly a travel day – and also mainly will be photos. We stopped by on our way to Rotorua Airport (about the size of Santa Rosa airport) and visited a redwood forest that had been planted about 100 years ago. It was odd to see coast redwoods …

top of the valley looking down on Echo Crater Waimangu (Wai = water, Mangu = black) is the world’s youngest thermal valley. The Waimangu Geothermal system was created by the eruption of Mt. Tarawera on 10 June 1886, the only one created as a direct res …

words to live by (from the Lodge bathroom) Today was a day in the life of the Ngāti Manawa people. We got out from the hotel early and headed by bus to learn about all aspects of life of the Ngāti Manawa Māori. We had a very energetic young gal as our …

We put our bags outside our door at 7:00 a.m. to be taken to the bus, and after another delicious breakfast at the VOCO, we were off on the road again. We had a few stops along the way – the visitor’s center below in the town of Tirau was pretty classi …

This morning was my first breakfast at the VOCO. It was really great! A special “barista,” everything from hot food to small pastries to fruit to (YUM!) local ancient grain and sourdough bread (they even have my secret passion – Vegemite)! The hotel is …

I learned a new Japanese word today – Sugoi. One of the women on our trip, Yoshiko, used it when I told her I was getting up at 6:00 a.m. to go row with the North Shore Rowing Club Masters, the “Tyred Swans.” She told me it meant “Brave” but in looking …

Melissa is back! First of all, can I say that I *hate* the new WordPress. I can’t figure out for the life of me how to wrap text, insert photos, etc. It used to be SO EASY. Hopefully I will get the bandwidth at some point to figure out how to do this c …

Yep – I’m back. I know. I know. It’s been a while. That’s okay – I mainly just write for myself. Short story? A friend who lost her husband suddenly a few months back asked me to go with her on a trip. She and her husband have done just shy of 30 trips …