Whangarei

Today Joe went out diving to Poor Knights Islands. I didn't bring my cable to download pictures, so photos today will be from Joe's trip. I had a lovely day shopping and sightseeing in the little town of Whangarei. The highlight was a old quarry that all volunteers have turned into a garden with great walking paths, called Whangarei Quarry Gardens. I hiked around for about an hour. There is a subtropical theme. There were lots of bromeliads, lilies and ferns. They had a specially planted Camellia garden with over 150 varieties. There were lots of arts and crafts stores, so it's a good thing I don't have much room in my suitcase for goodies like very cool teapot sets.

More adventures tomorrow.

Dolphins in Tutukaka Harbor

Hello from Tutukaka

Even though we are half a world away - as a Red Sox fan - Yeah! We signed Mike Lowell!!!

Now onto to our travelog. What a gorgeous place this part of the North Island is. We arrived in Auckland and headed north towards our destination Tutukaka. Along the way we stopped at Zion Wildlife Gardens. It's a Big Cat preserve. It's part of a world wide effort to save some of the rarer breeds of mostly lions and tigers. The star of the place is Zion. He was featured in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As you may guess he is Aslan.

He even let out a mighty roar for us.

We also got to play with 2 white lion cubs, Ivula(Rain) and Amafu(Cloud).

Ivula


Big brother is hogging the milk. Amafu(left) and the female Ivula on the right


My what big teeth I have


Our guide Ashley was the greatest. He is from South Africa and was part of the team that raised many of the younger lions at Zion Wildlife. To help keep the gene pool diverse, many Big Cat preserves swap young lions and tigers. Ashley was there to see how their lions and tiger were faring. The environments (Whangeri is much cooler than the Kruger Park outside Johannesburg) are quite different, but the lions were doing well. We were lucky to have Ashley as a guide as he will be returning home soon.

Not much quilting going on

It's been rather hectic lately with work and preparing for our upcoming trip to new Zealand. We leave on Friday and return on December 4th.


This could be us in Abel Tasman National Park

Enjoying the World Series Win

It is was a little different than the win in 2004. My Grandmother really did believe every spring that "This would be the year!". My mother was also a die hard Sox fan and would have celebrated the first World Series in her lifetime. However I still wish they could have been there to see Paps strike out the last Rockies player. Some photos to remember the win and parade.


Mike Lowell MVP


Tito hands the ball (and series) to Paps


Tek and Paps


A beautiful day for a parade


Varitek and Mirabelli


Big Papi and the World Series trophy