Another Wellington Skyscape

Another beautiful 'skyscape' from our Wellington trip. 

Wellington Sunset

WELLINGTON SUNSET

We have spent the past four days in Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand, and a beautiful town at the south end of the north island.  It reminds me a bit of San Francisco and is nestled among rolling hills, lush vegetation and surrounded on all sides by water.  (Flying in, if you 'under shoot' or 'over shoot' the runway in either direction, you are in the water!  The roads are narrow and curvy, and transport you through tunnels, around beautiful coastal drives and on top of knolls with breathtaking vistas.  This evening, after a drive along at the edge of the water around beautiful bays and craggy rock beaches, we watched the ferry boat coming from the south island, the airplanes landing with only yards between water and runway, surfers catching the last waves of the day, and finally this sunset..... all while eating our Tip Top ice cream cones.  (Have I mentioned the ice cream in NZ????)  Isn't missionary work great!! Seriously, visit my missionary blog to read about our assignment in Wellington.

City of Sails

Auckland - City of Sails

Auckland is called the city of sails and this photo shows why.  Even in the winter, the harbor and bays are dotted with brightly colored sails.  It will be fun to see how many sailboats we see in the summer.  This past Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent the afternoon in a lovely little town called Mission Bay.  We ate lunch at a little Mexican restaurant, (one of very few we have found), and then sat on a bench watching the sailboats glide by. 

Devonport

This is a beach in the town of Devenport, which is the neighboring town to Takapuna.  Are you getting tired of beautiful beaches yet?  Me neither!!!!!  If this looks 'different' it's because I took this with a fisheye lens. 

New Zealand - Kiwi Kountry

(As most of you know, I have been trying to post most of our 'official' missionary photos and experiences on our missionary blog Kiwi Krossings, and keep this blog more for my photography, but sometimes I can't decide where to post.  Here are some photos I also posted on the other blog.)

THERE ARE THREE KINDS OF KIWIS IN NEW ZEALAND:

The Fruit

The Bird

The People

New Zealanders call themselves Kiwis.  (Isn't this about the cutest kiwi you have ever seen???)

Winter in Auckland

This post is for those of you who are feeling sorry for us because we happened to end up in Auckland during one of the coldest winters in 50 years, with more snow in New Zealand than they've had in 50 years.  I thought I'd show you a couple of winter photos I took last Saturday:

As you can see, it's been a rough winter for us.  We had to laugh at the news the day of a big storm last week.  There was a big debate over whether they could officially say it snowed in Auckland.  They couldn't decide if it was a few flakes of snow, or just a bit of sleet, or hail.  Whatever it was, it melted before it hit the ground.   I have to say, however, that there was considerable snow in the southern part of the north island, as well as the south island, and since there are no provisions to remove snow because it is so rare, it did cause problems for a while.

Three of My Favorite Things!

When I am outside, here are three of my favorite things to look at and photograph:

Beautiful Trees

There is such a wide variety of interesting trees here.  I've posted a photo of the kauri tree that can live for thousands of years.  Another great tree is the pohutukawa tree.  The trunks and limbs of the old trees are massive.  I can't wait until Christmastime when they are covered with red blooms.  In addition, there are many varieties of fern trees and palm trees, pine trees, furs, as well as common fruit and shade trees. 

Beautiful Clouds
Our office has big windows where most days we can watch the most fascinating 'cloud parade'.  The clouds hang very low and have great dimension, and sometimes they move across the sky so quickly it looks like a time lapse video.  One minute they are dark and menacing, and three minutes later they are light and fluffy.

Beautiful Seashells

I love to walk along the beautiful beaches and see what treasures I find.  I already have a tray filled with shells on our coffee table and we've only been here a few months.  I've missed doing some creative edits, so I took a few minutes and had fun with this one.