Gifts of Land and Sea

Laughter is a wonderful gift....this electronics store at the mall has the funniest signs.

More beautiful gardens.

The women's center where I've signed up for a flax weaving class.

The Tazman Seashore.

 

 

 

 

I sat on top of this stump and the ocean raced in and foamed up all around it.  I felt like a mermaid...lol.

I received beautiful gifts from the sea. Shells, drift wood and a heart shaped stone.

The water was very cold and my feet were numb in no time. I would sink up to my ankles in the pebbles as the water rushed over my feet.

 Walking back to my friends and their car parked there in the distance. I am very grateful for this opportunity they have given me and am so glad for my friends and family that are sharing it with me. Love you all!

Percy's Reserve

Today my friends took me to a great place for a tramp, or hike as we call it. Percy's Reserve has native plants, waterfall, a duck pond and I only saw a tiny bit of  it. I did take a ton of pictures. Weather has not been conducive to getting outdoors, 40 to 50 degrees and rainy with cold southerly winds, but today we had a few hours of nice weather and took advantage of it.

Hello Mike and Leilani. Can you tell which one is the native Kiwi and which one is from Texas? Haha, yep, the huge parka is a dead give away....lol.

The fern trees are unusual but the ducks are normal mallards.

This trail was pretty steep and full of mud puddles from all the rain lately.

All these amazing plants growing along the steep sides of this ravine.

 My friends found a nice bench to sit on while I did the steep trail. See them at the bottom in the middle.

This fern had one of those awsome spiral babies that chefs like to cook. I got a close up of it.

Yea, I know, that's a lot a ferns. Hehehe, but they're so awsome!

Vibrant purple little flowers. Really pretty.

I'm so glad that you guys went tramping with me today. It's great to have someone with whom to say, ooooh look at that. I can't wait to take you with me on my next adventure.

Beautiful Library Park and the Beach

Seagull and Variable Oyster Catchers

Too cold to get in the water yet. Looking forward to finding out more about whale watching.

This beautiful park is at the library where I carried lap top, phone and kindle for free wifi today to get this post done.

There were some people doing tai chi in the park. Too bad none of them spoke English I would love to learn.  I used Skype for the first time today.  I got to talk to my sister, Robin, and my friend Christy. Christy's first published book , Four In The Morning, came out recently on Amazon. Be sure and check it out.

Home and High Tea

Home is the corner lot from the blue gate covering on the left around the corner to the last tree on the left.

The house is called a lock wood, sort of like a log cabin.

Roses by the fence are blooming beautifully.

And having a lemon tree off the front deck is amazing.

High Tea at Sweet Pea's in Petone.

African red tea, delicious.

Cute tea pot cozies.

Top tier shot glass parfeit tasted like jam with cream in the middle. Too sweet for me. Also, tiny pecan pies.

Bottom was pate on toast, asparagus wrapped with bread, cucumber and butter sandwich and roast beef with cream cheese triangle sandwich.

Arrival

Visited Sydney airport a few hours longer than original itinerary stated because the flight from LA was late.

At least Quantas had everything rescheduled for me when I arrived and even gave me a food voucher. I had to fly to Auckland and then on to Wellington. I traveled approximately 36 hours and was very happy to finally see Mike and Leilani, my wonderful friends that sponsored my 6 month stay.

Vistited the Dentist with Leilani and saw beautiful flowering bushes on the walk. Amazing even though it is cold here, about 14 degrees Celsius, roses are flowering along with many others that I don't know the names.

Today is Saturday and early this morning we went to the Farmer's Market where I saw some amazing things.

Even crabs caught fresh that morning.

We're having high tea tomorrow, so I'll try to get to a wifi area to send pictures, since that will be another first for me.