Where Did I Park the Car?

Brian is back in San Diego for a few months before moving on to his beloved Chile. It is great to have him back in San Diego. I am not sure how thrilled he is, however. Two days after being here his car was stolen! After a lunch with a friend over by Dan's office he went to get in his car and couldn't find it. Now Brian has a sense of direction like mine so he thought maybe he had parked elsewhere. He walked the area for about 30 minutes before grabbing his brother to canvas nearby streets. Alas, no car!

Fortunately, he had taken everything out of it. The police were called and it was reported stolen after determining it was not in a tow yard. For now he has a rental car and then while we are on vacation he will have our cars to choose from. Quite a bummer to deal with! Who knows, maybe it is in Mexico and will be driven back to the US side soon. Now what condition it is in is a whole other story! Thankfully he has good insurance and so far they have been very helpful.

A New Hat

I know you remember all about 'The Hat.' I love my Nordy's hat and I love it even more since they replaced it when some of the stitching broke down. That shocks me to this day that they would do that, but anyway, I decided not to risk taking it on the upcoming trip. Putting it in a suitcase may have been the culprit to the tear and I'm not willing to risk it again.








So off to that other famous store, Target, for a new "Hat." OK, it is straw and has a sort of bow on it, but the only real resemblance to the other hat is the color.

It is smaller and not near as cute, but cute enough and I can put it in the suitcase! $15 is a deal and if it falls apart, I will not fret. What do you think of this hat? It should do in a pinch. I also had to get new glasses because my purple ones broke and couldn't be fixed. Bummer. So these are brown and bigger. Very comfortable.

Travel to the "Land Down Under" Comes to an End

On our last full day we had a wonderful tour of Northern New Zealand. We are at the top of a bowl created by volcano (much like Hawaii) overlooking the Auckland Harbor. We are standing on Mt. Victoria. It is quite windy, but gives you a 360 view of the city. Our hotel was actually very close to that space needle you see in the distance.

In all we were gone 23 days. Fourteen were spent cruising with the remaining days spent touring by land. The group was fun to be with and we sure want to thank Carol our wonderful travel agent who put together all the specialty tours we went on. We all felt like we saw so much more than what the cruise line could have offered. New Zealand was an amazing place to look at, to be in the company of its people, and to see what life "down under" really is like.

What a blessing that we were able to take this trip. But hang on, in just 8 weeks we leave again on another 23 day trip. This time we head for the Baltic region of Europe and Scandinavia for 2 weeks on the Azamara Quest and then a full week in France via land explorations. There will be 8 of us instead of 12. We will be with the same group we went to Asia with. It should be some reunion!

Wine and Beer

While in New Zealand we had the opportunity to go to 3 wineries and a brewery. Our group consisted of beer drinkers, wine drinkers, and non-drinkers. We were an eclectic bunch!

In New Zealand we saw several wineries. This one produced award winning wine sold all over the world. The picture was taken from atop a third story tower that overlooked the vines. It was a spectacular view! Down in the basement there were hundreds of casks. Special wine tasting groups could go down there and sample the wines. We tasted wine in the main lobby and then went into a larger room for a delightful lunch.

From there, we went on to the Moa brewery. Dan was the one who really wanted to check out a brewery. The word Moa is the name of an ancient dinosaur bird who roamed the landscape of New Zealand.

You can see from Dan's happy smile he enjoyed the beer tasting. Good thing we had a tour bus taking us around because several in the group were a bit toasted!

Fiordland National Park

As we left Australia we sailed for 2 days and rounded the bottom of New Zealand. We spent a full day slowly cruising around Fiordland National Park. This would be like cruising through Glacier Bay if you were on an Alaskan cruise or through the Fjords of Norway. Beautiful scenery although after those majestic Fjords of Norway, these seemed small. It was cool to see the difference between the Fjords/Fiord's near the two different Poles. If I remember correctly, the ones in New Zealand are older, but don't quote me on that.

It was a beautiful morning to sail through the area. A Park Ranger got on the ship early in the morning and began his commentary about 8 a.m. and continued off and on until about 4 p.m. He said that this day was the clearest they had had all season (which began in October)and how lucky we were. It was indeed quite pretty. Compared with the Fjords of Norway these were tiny and not as magnificent. They were pretty none the less. The water was so still and pristine as we cruise through them. I think it would be so cool to have a permit to hike through the National Park.

That night we had "formal night" so everyone dressed up for dinner. It was fun to get a little dressed up and have a wonderful evening of dinner and music. Here's the whole group. Many nights we had 2 tables of 6 and we preferred it to the long table of 12 where you didn't really get to talk much...and you know how I like to talk!

Pahuto Geyser

In Tauronga, we went to the Te Puia Village which featured a recreated Maori Village, the Pahuto Geyser and the Thermal Mud Pools.
We got to see some authentic dancing and singing too. Very similar to the the South Pacific Islanders found in Hawaii. Since I have not seen 'Ole Faithful' here in the US, this was neat to see.

Grilled Pizza Night

How fun this meal was going to be! At our Bible study tonight we ate dinner first and what a meal it was! Lori started things off by stretching pizza dough out and put it on greased jellyroll pans. The she took them out to the heated BBQ (on medium low) and set the dough on it to cook. Took about 5 minutes to crisp up. Then she took them off and slid them  onto a wooden cutting board.

From there she took them into the kitchen and on the cooked dough side added pizza sauce or Alfredo sauce and then all the toppings. Back onto the grill it goes with the lid down for about 5 more minutes or until the cheese melts and the bottoms are cooked. Oh how yummy.

We baked 6 pizza combinations: Chipotle Chicken; Sausage & Pepperoni; Alfredo with Spinach and Onion; BBQ chicken; Canadian Bacon & Pineapple; and Vegetarian. Wow! It was so good and the thin crust was great. Just look at the feast we ate.

I'm going to do this when summer comes and it is too hot to turn the oven on.

Bible study and fellowship followed with full stomaches.