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New Zealand - Page 2
 

Waipara
Darryn and I took a Sauvignon/Semillon wine course through the University's continuing adult education program, and were lucky enough to be taught by a fabulous retired Canterbury Botany professor.  It was terrific because he was able to both provide lectures on the chemistry of grapes and wine as well as give some training in their enjoyment and tasting.  On a bleak winter day in June, we took a anything-but-bleak field trip to visit a few terrific wineries in New Zealand's well-known Waipara wine-producing region near Christchurch.
 

Kaikora
Kaikora is known for whale watching and stunning vistas.  We stopped for a day on our way up the South Island coast to Wellington.  I always describe New Zealand as a place where every snapshot could be an automatic postcard.  This is especially true in Kaikora.  The whale watching boat was careful not to get too close and disturb the humpback whale we found.  You can how she was first resting flat, then humped her back to dive straight down into the ocean depths.   

Aukland

I visited Auckland while in the city for a conference, and ended up bunking in a friend's back yard camper van.  In the views of Auckland below, the low dark hills rising around the city are actually volcanoes - Auckland is surrounded on all sides by these still active but slumbering  monsters.
 

Dunedin
Fi's family was kind enough to have me over to Dunedin for Christmas celebration, including the traditional crowns and an annual viewing of The Wizard of Oz.  We also visited the Moeraki Boulders, unusual large and spherical boulders scattered along the Otago coast.  They are remnants of prehistoric mudstone formations revealed by coastal erosion. 
 

Wellington

Wellington is New Zealand's hilly, windy capital.  I visited a couple times during my stay, once with Darryn, and had to take a several-hour ferry ride across sometimes rough open ocean to get there from the South Island.  The student demonstration below is in response to New Zealand's implementation of university fees for the first time in the nation's history.  It was doubly hard on students because the government cut student allotments at the same time.  My friend and professor, Liz Gordon, was voted into Parliament in 1996 and I had the opportunity to man a polling station and watch the results come in with her.  It was great being part of a political system in which there is an almost 100% voting rate and true grass roots excitement.