Tag: travel

The Catlins – Friday and Saturday

Friday afternoon I picked up my rental car for a new experience – driving on the left. I have to admit, this was something that made me very nervous, but like most things that cause us to worry needlessly, it was not as bad as I anticipated. I found staying left to come very naturally after driving for a few minutes. The oddest thing? The fact that my blinker (indicator/turn signal) and windshield wipers were the opposite of what I am used to, so there were quite a few instances of turning on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker – but even that was remedied rather quickly.

The most interesting thing about driving in New Zealand: the maximum speed limit anywhere in NZ is 100 km/h – which is equal to 62.14 m/h (for the most part – this was not a problem, because most of my road trip was on wandery back roads in the Catlins, however, on the motorway out of Dunedin I was thankful for cruise control.)

My first stop through the Catlins was a stop to grab a bite to eat in a little town called Milton. I was lucky that I had a beautiful evening for the first leg of my road trip.

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After grabbing a bite, I continued to my next stop Kaka Point. I was racing a bit against the sun at this point, as it does get dark crazy early down here this time of year.

While it was darker than I would have liked, I did enjoy the beach and a nice coffee at the surf club.

Knowing at this point it would be too dark to continue to the Nugget Point Lighthouse, I continued on the way to my overnight stop, Surat Bay Lodge near Owaka. Most of my journey after dark was on little dirt roads, and even in the dark it was clear that I was passing through some amazing pristine country.

At the hostel, it was clear I was in penguin country.

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I must admit, I was thankful for the early darkness, because I was wrestling with a bit of a sinus infection, and sleep was a good thing. (You will notice in my pictures from Saturday that my poor sinuses were quite swollen, but all is well – thankful for packing a sinus rinse and some Zyrtec – not many pharmacies in this part of the world on a weekend.)

I got up early the next morning, and headed out for more adventure, starting with enjoying the beauty of Surat Bay.

My first walk/tramp/hike was Purakanui Falls – a lovely walk through the bush, leading to a beautiful waterfall.

After the falls, I stopped a few places along the road, including Florence Hill Lookout.

Next stop was the Lake Wilkie Walk:

After Lake Wilkie, I ventured to McLean Falls:

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Finally I checked into the Lazy Dolphin Lodge in Curio Bay, then went up the road to the petrified forest, where I stayed until dusk to get a glimpse of the lovely penguins.  The pictures of the penguins didn’t turn out, (too dark and too far away) but it was cool to watch them play in the water and on the sand.

Next up tomorrow, I have to time it just right, but I am planning to backtrack to Cathedral Caves, and hit some other cool points of interest along the way to Invercargill.

Dunedin and Taieri Gorge Railway

For Merry’s South Island Adventure Take 3, I started my adventure again in Dunedin.

I realized I had time after my flight to catch the Taieri Gorge Railway before I went to dinner with NZ Fulbrighter Simon and his family, so I booked the journey and headed to the Railway station – it is a gorgeous old building.

The journey through the Taieri Gorge was beautiful – It was a sunny, perfect day, and the ever changing landscape of the Otago region was highlighted in an amazing fashion along the gorge.

I got off the train at Wingatui, where I was met by Simon, and went to have a lovely dinner with he and his wife Sylvia, and their lovely girls. It was such an enjoyable evening.

The next day I went with Philipa and enjoyed hanging with her students and getting to experiment in her lab.

That evening, Philipa and Rachel and I had a lovely dinner at Emerson’s, then they gave me a tour of Dunedin by night – check out these views:

Friday, I spent the day with Rachel at school – it was so neat to spend the day with her (and I have no comment on the fire alarm) 🙂 – and her very awesome students.

After school, Rachel took me to pick up my rental car, which is the beginning of my next adventure, driving on the left and exploring the Catlins.

Last Day Exploring in Australia

So today (Saturday) was my last full day in Australia – and it was a full day, as I ventured outside of Cairns to Kuranda.

I had a fun day, and it was action packed!

But first, I will share with you my adventure on Friday – Friday I had no plans, the weather was gross – so I took the opportunity to do laundry (as dull as that is) and some paperwork I needed to knock out, as I have about a 24 hour turn around when I arrive back to Wellington before I leave for Dunedin and my road trip with the awesome Rachel to the Energise Conference in Queenstown. However, in teh late afternoon the showers had cleared a little bit, so I spent some time at the pool, then decided that I wanted to try something new for dinner, so I headed to the Bayleaf Balinese Restaurant to give it a try. I settled on the be sampi mebase bali (braised beef in coconut milk) – and it came with rice, pickled veggies and some sort of sprouts side dish that was spicy and good. It was delicious – and the portion was huge – I only finished about half before I was stuffed.

But anyway – back to today. I caught my shuttle at 7:30 and headed to the Railway Station to take the Scenic Railway to Kuranda.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare, so I spent some time exploring the railway station, museum and old cottage before boarding the train.

The construction of the railway was treacherous, and was completed with hand tools. . . Crazy!

The ride up was gorgeous.

The train stopped briefly at Barron Falls Station – with great overlooks:

Then we finished the journey and arrived in Kuranda.

Kuranda is small and super touristy – but I decided to hit up the 3 wildlife parks – starting with the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary.

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Then, my next stop was the Bird Sanctuary – these birds were amazing – and very mischievous – you can see my friend (A Macaw) who decided to hang out and try and open the zippers on my backpack!

At this point it was pouring, so I stopped for lunch, where I had a reptile join me beside my table and I had a sampler platter of Emu, Kangaroo and Crocodile – and made the mistake of posting the picture with #minifigmerry on Twitter – and got some interesting tweets – about the inhumanity of consuming meat – whoops. . .

After lunch, I headed to the last of the Wildlife parks – the Koala Sanctuary – I had not planned to do a wildlife experience here, as I had done one in the blue mountains – but the girl convinced me – they had an extra spot – and I could actually hold the koala – so I did it – the cost was less than $15 USD, by the way.

Meet my friend Yoshi:

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It was like holding a sleepy toddler – Yoshi kept leaning his head in.

I explored the rest of the park.

Then I headed back to the Cable Way. There were 2 stations on the way down – and I was able to stop at each, walk around and enjoy the rain forest before ending my journey and catching the bus back to the hotel.

It was a great day – and a neat way to end my Australian Adventure – now I guess I should pack – I have an airplane shuttle to catch tomorrow!

Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef

So today was absolutely amazing – and a total bucket list item – many of you know that when I was young we lived in a trailer on the lake on Corps of Engineer property at Little River Landing off of Bells Ferry – so I could swim about the same time I could walk. Water – particularly coral reefs have always fascinated me. I have snorkeled and scubaed throughout the Caribbean, Florida and recently New Zealand – and I have always dreamed of snorkeling or diving in Australia at the Great Barrier reef – and I am so blessed that I have now had this opportunity. Today I snorkeled in 3 sites within the Great Barrier Reef, all on a Reef called Flynn Reef. (Unfortunately due to having had Sinus Surgery and being cautioned by my ENT that diving would likely be uncomfortable, I was not sold on the idea of scubadiving, and I was told by many that snorkeling was just as good, if not better, and I was not at all disappointed.)

But, back to Flynn Reef.

Here is a diagram from Pro Dive Cairns Queensland that shows where Flynn is located:

Great Barrier Reef Dive Site Maps – 

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Unfortunately the wind was high (30 Knots) and the sea was quite rough – so there was a lot of sea sickness on the way out – including yours truly. (even after meds, as they were highly recommended by the crew given the sea conditions) Seasickness was another first for me, in fact – but not one I really would like to repeat. I will spare you the details, but I assure you that everyone on the boat (including the crew) was glad when we docked at our first spot of the 3 locations we were visiting.

We stopped at 3 great sights on Flynn Reef: Tracy’s, Gordon’s and Coral Gardens.

Here is a close up of the reef with these sites marked, again from Pro Dive:

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I saw all sorts of fish, a turtle, a small shark, rays and so much beautiful colorful coral that I just can’t even explain the beauty. It’s amazing that such a small organism can join together to make such a large living thing. I am going to let pictures and videos do the talking now.

First, Tracy’s site (with 2 videos):

 

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Next stop – Gordon’s Site:

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and the final site was Coral Gardens:

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So yeah – it was an amazing day. . . I hope you enjoyed the pictures and videos! 🙂

Wednesday Travels ~ Sydney to Cairns

Wednesday was a less exciting day, as it was mostly a travel day – I was up at 5:30 to head to the Sydney Airport to catch my flight to Cairns. Getting to the airport, checking in a getting through security were easy and painless, and I was happy with the simplicity. I hung out at the gate, reading papers, playing games and just chilling – oh and fantastic people watching, as usual – airports are the best!

The flight was minimally turbulent, but all was well, and we landed in Cairns early. I got off the plane, grabbed by bags and caught the shuttle to my hotel, where I found I couldn’t check in for a little under 2 hours, so I secured my bags, and decided to grab a quick lunch and come back to check in. As soon as I stepped off the plane I knew I had arrived in the tropics – it was hot and muggy and felt like a nice Atlanta summer.

Once I was able to check in, I got to my room, and was pleasantly surprised. I booked a cheap room online, and did not have high expectations, but this room is great! I even have my own little porch area. #winning

Once settled in, I took a stroll through Cairns – to the waterfront area (mostly so I know where to go in the morning for my snorkeling tour).

Check out the loud birds in the trees walking home:

The waterfront was fun and lively – and since the beach is closed because of crocodiles and jellies, people were enjoying the free waterfront pool. It was a fun stroll, complete with birds, rainbows and sculptures. Moving along the Wharf, I stumbled upon The Prawn Star Restaurant – serving sea food on a boat – and thought “why not” so I had oysters for dinner on the boat before heading back to rest up for my exciting day in the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow!

 

 

Beautiful Monday in the Blue Mountains

Monday was an adventure packed day, to say the least – we packed so much into a day – and that was thanks to Anderson’s Tours, and my awesome tour guide: Scott (I think – I should have written down his name) he was superb and added things to the day that weren’t on the itinerary because the group wanted them. The group was 20 people – 2 of use were solo female travelers, there were several older couples who were doing this trip before boarding their cruise ships headed to NZ and other cities in Australia, a mother daughter pair, and a few other couples just vacationing in Sydney. It was a fun group – with Americans, Kiwis, Aussies, Canadians, Germans, Brits and South Koreans all represented – so we were a multicultural, quite fun group.

The day started at 7:30 at Circular Quay – I walked from the hostel (3k). We loaded up on our bus, and set out to the Blue Mountains.

After about a 2 hour drive, we arrived in the Blue Mountains, and were greeting with fantastic vistas. Much like the reason the Blue Ridge Mountains back home are “blue”, the Blue Mountains in Australia are  so named because, from Sydney, they look blue. The eucalypts (gum trees), which in the hot sun discharge a fine mist of eucalyptus oil from their leaves. This mist refracts light, which makes the haze look blue at a distance.

Our first order of business was to explore Scenic World a “theme park” with some cool scenic rides. Ride #1 was the Funicular Railway – the steepest incline railway in the world. It has a 128% incline – or 52 degrees. I captured a video going down:

The mountain you see is Serenity Mountain. You will see in the pictures below that I was REALLY happy they updated the cars – the original ones were freaky scary!

After we go off the railway, our guide took us on a little bush walk – talking about the cool flora and fauna we were seeing. There were also remnants and information from the coal mining roots of the village.

After our little walk, we boarded the Cableway back up – the car was crowded, so I don’t have the best pictures, but trust me, the views were amazing!

The next stop was the glass bottom Skyway, which gave us more vistas, a look down at the gorge and a small waterfall.

Next we got back in the mini-bus, and headed to Echo Point, where we looked at the overlook to the 3 Sisters rock formations. There are several legends about the 3 sisters, and most relate to the Pleiades star cluster – I encourage you to Bing or Google and check some out. The Gundungurra and Darug tribes of Australia’s Aboriginal people are a few of many tribes that hold this area sacred. It was tourist-palooza – but an amazing sight to see.

Our next stop – I told y’all it was a fun-filled day – we aren’t even to lunch yet! – was the Waradah Aboriginal Center and show – I learned so much about Aboriginal cultures, and really enjoyed the history of the Didgeridoo and the other stories they shared with us! I have a few videos as well as some pictures.

Once the show was over, we thought we were headed to lunch, but our AMAZING guide had a bit of a surprise in store for us. If we were willing to miss a little lunch time, we could actually take the hike back to the bus, since several folks wanted to walk the trail. Most of us agreed – and a few were shuttled back, and we did the trail. It was totally worth the amazing views – I mean – I am so glad he took us on this journey – because I would have missed these amazing views!

After our hike, we did go have lunch, at an Australian Country Club – lunch was fine – but I was so glad that we traded the hike for the longer lunch – after all – I am a teacher – I can eat in 10 mins – no problem!

But my friends, this day still wasn’t done – our next stop (we thought) was the Wildlife Park – where we knew we would see some of Australia’s most famous creatures, but our guide had another surprise for us – I mean – seriously – this guy was amazing – there were 2 other tours operated by the same company that day – and I think my bus definitely got the best deal and bang for our buck.  He took us to Lennox Bridge – which is the oldest stone arch bridge on the Australian Mainland – cool, right?

We then headed to the Featherdale Wildlife Park, a conservation and animal rescue. . .I got to touch a koala – and I have pictures to prove it! 🙂

I also saw wombats, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, blue penguins, kookaburras, pelicans, the most venomous snake in the world and all sorts of amazing animals – it was definitely a bucket list experience. I will let the pictures speak for themselves though!

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We left the park, and headed to our final adventure – cruise on the Parramatta River to the Sydney Harbor – at sunset. It was the perfect way to end a fantastic day.

I disembarked at Darling Harbor, and went to an Irish Pub with WiFi to have dinner, a nice stout, and work on my blog. It was a fantastic, amazing, unbelievable day! One more day in Sydney (no plans, so we will see what I get up to), before heading to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef!

A Sunny Sydney Sunday

Easter Sunday I awoke to a beautiful sunny morning in Sydney. I had not planned appropriately in my packing to attend church on Easter Sunday, and originally thought that I was just going to be a total Easter slacker, but that was not to be the case, as you will see. I started my morning walking back to Central Station (about 10 minutes from my hostel, if that). My bus tour was a 48 hour pass, and I still had the second “loop” to do, which would take me to the famous Bondi Beach.

The drive out to Bondi was pretty cool – again – you definitely can see the Victorian influence on Sydney.

When I disembarked the bus at Bondi, I was greeted with some pretty fantastic vistas, and an interesting site – a church that had set up a “beach-side” Easter service on the lawn by the beach – and I was right on time. I popped into the service and enjoyed it before continuing my journey to the white sand glistening from Bondi.

I plopped on the beach – and enjoyed the views of the waves, the sunshine, and yes, the surfers.

It was a quite enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. Unfortunately, I did have some work I needed to do, which required wifi – as well as a blog update I started last night that I wanted to get rolling, so I went to the place where I knew I could get some decent WiFi, and complete some work – no where other than McDonald’s (which they call Macca’s here in Australia and New Zealand). I grabbed a coffee and knocked out some work.

Once I had finished both my (crazy large) coffee – and my work, I set back out, and re-boarded the bus. I rode the Bondi Bus back – taking in new views – and adding a chapter to my future book of things obnoxious tourists do, brought to you by a bunch of young adults with a selfie-stick – seriously – I could write a book – about obnoxious tourists from all over the world.

The views, as usual, were fantastic – despite selfie stick girl trying to impress the young men with her (who I have hopefully cropped out of all the pictures).

 

At this point I decided, since I had paid for the bus, I would use it to see the city for the rest of the day. I started by transferring buses at St. Mary’s Church – so I walked around a bit, and was even rewarded with a cool water show from the fountains.

After that little detour, I boarded the bus, headed for the Royal Botanical Gardens, where I spent the rest of my time (until they closed at dusk). I was rewarded for staying in the Gardens by the amazing views at the end – Y’all  – Sydney is certainly a beautiful city!

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After I left the gardens, I caught the bus once more, and headed to Darling Harbor for dinner – another bucket list item for me, as I headed for a Brazilian Churrascaria – oh it was yummy!

I left Darling Harbor, caught an Uber to my hostel, and crashed – excited about a big day tomorrow in the Blue Mountains – and seeing some koalas, kangaroos and more!

 

Saturday in Sydney

I started my Australian Adventure early, leaving the house at 5:45 for my flight to Sydney – because it was International, I felt that I needed to plan on the 3 hour travel time as stated on the website. I also was unable to check into my flight online, so I wanted to do what I could to secure I decent seat, if possible. I didn’t need to worry – my flight was obviously booked at a higher tier than I thought, so I had a seat with “the works”, my bag was free, as was a meal on board, and I had a lovely window seat, 2A. A pleasant surprise! I checked in my bag, then decided I would enjoy a nice flat white and breakfast before heading to the international security check point. I am glad I didn’t rush, as the security check point didn’t open until 7:30! Thankfully the Wellington Airport is lovely – and has free wifi – and comfy chairs (by airport standards) and I settled in with Netflix and watched the fine, high-quality entertainment that can only be given in the form of a Mel Brooks movie – “Robin Hood – Men in Tights”.  I breezed through security and awaited boarding. The flight was an easy 3 hour crossing of the Tasman – Air NZ has great entertainment options, and the flight wasn’t full, so I had my row to myself – I love when that happens!

Check out these views coming into Sydney!

 

Arrval in Sydney was smooth, I collected my luggage, then cleared customs. While in the airport I got a Optus sim card (for Data) and an Opal card for the Sydney Transit system, then caught the train to Central Station, a short walk from my Hostel.

The hostel is nothing special, but I am in a solo room, so I will survive. (Although the stinky wifi makes me really happy I got the cellphone data card!)

After settling in and shifting my day bag around, I was ready to explore, and decided that the Big Bus Tour was the way to go – so I walked back to Central and “hopped” on the bus.

Sydney is a big city, and is very Victorian, as you can see from the pictures!

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Check out the Aboriginal Artists –

And this crazy wall at the convention center:

I hopped off a few stops, including at the Opera House at the end of the day – it was gorgeous!

Luna Park
The “sails” are made of tones of tiles.
I stumbled upon a wedding at the Opera House. I can’t imagine that price tag!

After catching the last Big Bus back to Central, I wandered back to the Hostel, stopping and picking up Sushi on my way. To my New Zealand time zone adjusted self, it felt like almost midnight, and I had been up since 4:45 AM,so I was in bed by 8:30 – especially since I couldn’t update my blog – the hostel wifi is the WORST! (This blog update is brought to you by “Macca’s” (Also known as McDonalds!), and the data plan on my cellphone! 🙂

Tomorrow’s adventures are a trip out to Bondi Beach, and probably exploring the Botanical Gardens!

Wanderings in Wellington

I know, I know, I know – I am not so great at keeping this updated daily like I was doing before. . . but, in all honesty – so much of my time now is school visits – which are fantastic – but for confidentiality sake, I have to blog about them more in a batch than individually, so I am waiting until I have a few more to share some of my reflections and thoughts – look for a big blog post on that in the next few weeks for sure. That being said – next week I will have some exciting posts for you from Australia, so I don’t want to stay behind. This post will cover my fun exploring Wellington from when I left Nelson on March 23rd, to when I come up north to Auckland on April 5th. Wellington is a city full of fun and surprises.  (I swear, even though it is my current home, I am always finding new stuff to do here – it really is the “coolest little capital” in the world.

Weather in Wellington is truly unpredictable, and I have found that my Wellington survival kit always contains sunscreen – (this girl burns!), a rain coat (My Columbia Jacket may be the best thing I brought with me), a sweat shirt, a hairband (the wind!) and a hat. It has become second nature to have that all on me (where in the past, it would have just lived in my car) – No car here though!

This time period is no different – we have had rain, sunshine and my first real feel of an earthquake.

So I flew home from Nelson on the 23rd – a short – less than an hour flight across the Cook Strait,  and then I ubered back to the house (buses, luggage, hills and stairs just had no appeal), and started on the fun that was unpacking and laundry after being gone. I also did some administrative work, planning my upcoming travels and blogs, and worked through some lessons for the class I am sitting in (Science for NZ teachers). The Ludbrooks were out for the evening enjoying the ballet, so I wandered down to the House of Dumplings for dinner (YUM!) and then came back to the house, where I was working on planning my South Island trip details – when I heard a sound like a train whooshing through Aro Valley – I thought it was a truck, until, about 5 (or so) minutes later the house began to shake -it shook for a few minutes and stopped – my reaction was -oh that is an earthquake! No damage was done that I have heard of and while unnerving, it wasn’t horrible.

Friday was a big back to Uni day for me. I had several meetings lined up with professors and we had a Cohort Catch-up with the other Fulbright Teachers, so my Friday was quite productive.

SPACE PLACE

Friday night I decided to finally go up to Space Place, even though I knew the sky was going to be too cloudy to look through the telescope, I felt like some Space geekery was in order. I loved it! The guide to the Southern Skies, the Maori legends surrounding the Pleiades, or Matariki, as they call them, the planetarium show focused on the Southern Hemisphere – (That uses the same software I use in the Star Lab with kids, by the way), and even the telescope that wasn’t open for viewing were all fascinating and did my heart good.

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I stayed there pretty late (hoping the clouds would clear, but they didn’t (so I will be back on a clear night).

Cuba Dupa

Saturday was Cuba Dupa – one of the many festivals in Wellington – seriously – there is always something going on! Cuba Dupa is this cool festival with all sorts of performers, and an added bonus was that Lavie, one of our Fulbright teachers was performing as well so some of us went out to support him – and he did a great job!

After Lavie’s performance, I wandered around the festival taking in the music, the fun, and a lovely peanut butter gelato (Yum!)!

Wellington Museum

Midweek – between school visits, Reinhardt work and mundane things like cleaning, paying bills and the like, I took a wander to the Waterfront and the Wellington Museum – It was really quite cool to learn more of Wellington’s history. The museum focused a lot on the Maritime history of Wellington, which of course makes sense, but also had the Bond Store – a replica of the buildings original purpose, to collect taxes on shipped items for the crown.

What you will not see in the pictures is the portion that was the most impactful for me, the section dealing with the Wahine disaster, a great tragedy that occurred in 1967 when a passenger ferry sank in Wellington Harbor.

Days Bay Kayaking – and a bonus Festival to boot!

Saturday I headed out to Days Bay to enjoy the sunshine, and use my Groupon Voucher for my Kayak rental. I was excited to finally use the rental, and to get in a kayak! The sea wasn’t exactly calm, but it wasn’t terribly turbulent either, so I spent a nice hour in the bay enjoying the views.

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After Kayaking I wandered across to the pavilion where there was a festival going on – the Local Wild Food Challenge – a cooking competition, tasting and festival – it was very interesting, and I enjoyed the  Maori chef who talked about how he prepared a Hangi (a traditional meal cooked over hot rocks underground), then let us taste the food!

Southeast Asian Night Market

Keeping with the tradition that there is always something going on in Wellington, I ventured out to the Southeast Asian Night Market.

Here I watched some cool cultural shows and tasted different foods from across Southeast Asia – I tolerated the cold rain as long as I could, then I headed home and worked on the final touches of my Mid-Point presentation for the following day, April 3rd.

Midpoint Presentations

We (the Fulbright Teachers) gathered on April 3rd at Victoria to give our midpoint presentations. It was great to hear what everyone was up to, what their reflections were, and how their projects were progressing.

Thanks to Sue – who came to NZ for spring break from ATL – I have some pictures from my presentation, and some other pictures too:

Next I am off to Auckland!

 

W.O.W. – A museum with something for all tastes (fashion, art and cars!) – and an exciting journey for me!

I know that many of you are eagerly anticipating information about my school visits, however, I am working within the bounds of some ethics and privacy considerations and other logistics – I will share more general reflections soon when I have visited more schools, I promise – but my time in Nelson was fantastic. Gaye Bloomfield (@gayeblooms) Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, Coffee lover and teacher extraordinaire (can you see where we would totally get along?) went out of her way to make me feel welcome, and planned a spectacular week for me visiting schools of all levels and with all unique feels. I really feel like I have “experienced” all levels of Kiwi education now, and that sets me up quite nicely for the framework of my project.

I did get a few opportunities to play as well – starting with a lovely dinner and conversation on Monday night with Gaye. We had a delicious meal and talked for hours about all sorts of things – I think given a combination of enough coffee and wine, we could solve some serious world problems!

Check out the awesome dessert we had:

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Tuesday afternoon I had some free time, and explored the National WOW Museum – a unique museum that combines the Gallery of fashion from the World of Wearable Art shows, along with this massive collection of rare and classic cars both from all over the world.

The outfits were amazing works of art, and in each and every case, someone did wear them for the show. Many are thematic, and some were quite, well, off kilter might be one way to describe it, but I was in awe of the precision and the artistry of the pieces. In some cases I have included the description next to the photo, while in others you can just use your imagination. I did have a few favorites.

At the end was a viewing room where you could watch a video of the highlights of the World of Wearable Art Show, a huge international design competition where these amazing pieces are unveiled.

After the fashion art, I wandered to the next gallery – full of classic cars, super fancy cars, engines and other mechanical type stuff. Y’all – I am way out of my wheel house here – mostly I’m like – look a shiny car – but there were some seriously cool vehicles here to see.

Look through the album for yourself – there were cars that make today’s mini cars look gargantuan, cars that were the size of tanks, and my personal favorite item of luxury – the car with recliners in the back seat (If you can afford that car, my guess is you have a chauffeur, and you are enjoying the recliner).

It was also interesting to see the cars that obviously were collected and imported (remember, they drive on the left here).  It was a cool variety – and I know some of you (I’m looking at you Tom Green) will be quite in heaven looking at these cars.

While I was at the Museum I got a rather exciting email response to something I have been working on since before I left the US – because my project is focused on the use of digital technologies in a variety of situations, I have really strived to find schools of all types, all over New Zealand to visit and connect with.  The carrot that was dangling out in front of me was the ability to visit a school with significant geographical isolation (which is hard, because these schools are very small – we are talking 20 or so students from grades 1 – 8 typically, and only one to two teachers, one of whom is a teaching principal). We had communicated a bit before I left the US, but I had been unable to schedule with school just starting here (Feb is their first month of school here), but I got a response, so in May I will be given the great opportunity to visit this school on Stewart Island (and do some programming with those students). Stewart Island, also called Rakiura is the island south of the south Island of New Zealand, an island that is home to less than 400 permanent residents. The only way to travel commercially to Stewart Island is by a small ferry across the  Foveaux Strait, or a fixed wing flight from Invercargill. At 47° South, it is likely the furthest south this girl will ever travel! If I am lucky – I might even get a chance to view the Aurora Australis – talk about a bucket list item! I am going to make an adventure of this trip, knocking out my South Island school visits during the week, and my bucket list items on the weekend. I will start by flying to Dunedin and visiting schools (and MIEE Rachel @ibpossum), then a weekend road trip through the Caitlins to Invercargill to head to Stewart Island, followed by a weekend in Te Anau and Milford Sound, then a trip to Christchurch to see some schools (and stay in a hostel that was once a jail), before checking out the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve and Lake Tekapo and the Mount John Observatory before heading back to Windy Welly. (I have not forgotten about Queenstown, by the way – I am attending a conference there in April). All in all – can you tell I am excited for this? It looks like I am going to be on the road for much of April and May, with trips to schools in Auckland;  a brief vacation during term break to Australia (Sydney and Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef); Energise Conference in Queenstown, then my South Island Adventure.

After exploring the museum, and doing some work in the cafe, I headed back to the hostel, then grabbed dinner at a lovely Mexican restaurant – where I had my first truly authentic Mexican food since I have been in NZ – Fajitas for the win!

Tomorrow I have school visits and a board meeting, which I am quite excited about attending, before I head back to Wellington and the North Island on Thursday. Nelson has been good to me!