myrainasia

Sitting in the airport lounge with time to kill and those pesky little computers are available everywhere, so here’s an earlier-than-expected update. Weather seems to have cleared and warmed up, but I am aware that that can change in a heartbeat. Turns out I loved Wellington. I hear there’s a big competition for “better city” between Wellington and Auckland. Wellington gets my vote.

Favorite thing- Botanical Gardens. Don’t laugh. It was gorgeous. To get there you can take a long hike directly uphill. Right. Option #2- take this cute little cable car (what I would call a funicular) from a nice level location on one of the main drags. Takes you up to the top- where there’s a beautiful view over Wellington Harbor- and then you get to walk downhill (yay!) on this perfectly laid out path back to the city. I got into a flower photo mode which will be obvious when I post my pictures from NZ. They have a beautiful rose garden and I took about 20 close ups. (Discovered I really like the macro setting on my camera which is identified by a little flower- so I figured that was a good choice.)

Also loved the museum- Te Papa. Lots more on Maori culture. Also big on hands on stuff, so I pushed buttons, turned handles, felt an earthquake, like any contented 3 year old.

Random thoughts on NZ-

coffee coffee everywhere- works for me. Unfortunately all coffee seems to be at Starbuck prices. They have Starbucks here and the prices are the same as all of the other cafes. Also, haven’t figured out the difference between a flat white, caffe latte, and cappucino. No matter, all good (as they say here, I think.)

public bathrooms everywhere- NYC-take note! Clean, toilet paper available. I’m thinking this might not be the case as my travels progress north.

no tipping- I’m still a bit puzzled by the restaurants. They don’t really give you a check. When you’re done you go up to the cashier and pay. This seems to be the case in good restaurants as well as cheaper ones. Many places you pay when you order and they give you a number to put on your table and then they bring the food or drink to your table. Doesn’t seem to encourage tipping, although they will tell you it’s appreciated if you ask.

So now I’m off to South Island- Dunedin specifically. It wasn’t what I had planned, which was Nelson (at the top of South Island), but the holidays made flights and hotels difficult to coordinate and Dunedin worked out the best. I’ll end up working my way north. FYI- I’m flying there because it’s cheaper than any other way.

If I don’t write again (which I very well might)- Happy New Year to all!

Still working on the photo question. But you can see all of my pictures of Tahiti on flickr.com. If you don’t know how to use flickr, ask a 10-year old.

Okay, everybody had complaints that I wasn't updating my blog. Now that I've updated it, nobody has anything to say. Hey folks, drop me a line! I'm writing this from Wellington after a few days in Auckland and Rotorua ... [Continue reading this entry]

OK, OK, I promised to keep everybody posted and I have not done a very good job of it, but internet time in French Polynesia is a budget buster and the French keyboard resulted in some very weird looking words ... [Continue reading this entry]