Coming Full Circle

We wanted to give everyone time to enjoy the holidays and ring in the new year. We stayed two days in Invercargill, the southernmost city in the Commonwealth of Nations (former British nations). It was very rainy and windy. A public statue outside our hotel window turned into a giant flute/windchime. We didn’t get to see much in or around there due to the weather. We did go to Bluff, a seaport (and not a town apparently) at the southernmost tip of mainland New Zealand. Next stop south (after a couple of New Zealand islands) Antarctica!

Then we drove to our final accommodation in Arrowtown, back near Queenstown from where we fly out. Gorgeous place and setting! We enjoyed dining alfresco while taking in the view and watching the red deer on the neighboring farm. However, we awoke the next day to find the sky darkened by ash from Australia’s fires. The fires are in the exact area we toured in October; we stayed in three different places for several nights there and can vouch for how extensive they are.

From there, we took a full day tour through the Southern Alps out to Milford Sound, to see the Southern Hemisphere fjords after we saw the Northern ones in Norway this spring. They were more condensed (like everything in New Zealand). Norway’s were in long furrows of steep mountains, where New Zealand’s had more individual and separate mountains. On the four-hour bus ride back, I found myself thinking how much I would miss the landscape rolling by. I have become so used to it, and it is so beautiful.

Today, we stayed closer to home and hiked around Lake Hayes. Another gorgeous day. Tonight, we came in to a restaurant to use their WiFi because ours is spotty out at the country house where we are staying. We have laundry and packing duties to attend to the next couple of days and then it’s back to Hawaii and the USA. Like many important things in life, I can’t believe it’s already over and at the same time like it has gone on forever. Thanks for following along!