On the way home...

"I have found the flight from Aukland to LA is 3 movies, 5 hours of sleep, and two meals." -Jennifer, hotel manager of Millennium Hotel, Queenstown, New Zealand

I met Jennifer in the hall of our hotel in Queenstown. I asked her who the manufacturer was of our mattresses at the hotel...they were like sleeping on clouds. I loved them a lot. Anyway, she did not know. Our conversation quickly went to where are you from, how long have you been here, and what have you done. That's when she told me her opinion of the flight from there to LA. She is exactly right. It was sort of sad leaving New Zealand, but on the other hand, I am ready to get back home.

I did not know that almost all plant and animal life in New Zealand was imported. The people who came to New Zealand killed out most of the natural vegetation, and planted what they wanted, and brought in the animals they wanted. So there are no snakes or predators...just one poisonous spider which, it seems, no one ever sees. They have a lot of sheep that are mostly used for the meat rather than wool. Cattle ranching is fairly new, and they just started with the Red deer brought in from Russia. It was interesting to see the deer in groups with a very low fence keeping them in. Our tour guide said they do not know they could jump the fence. On our last day there, we had venison which had no game flavor, because the deer are not wild.

I thought I'd post some photos of the last couple of days of the countryside.

See the one cow in the lower left corner?

Sheep, clouds, mountains, and one cow

Isn't this gorgeous.

Okay, I am not part of the scenery, but I am on the bus.

In the middle third to the right there is a herd of red deer in the picture below.

I am in the LA airport waiting the 7 hours before we leave for Albuquerque...it is almost worse than the 13 hour flight overnight. I was very fortunate to have no one in the other two seats on the long flight. I spread out across the 3 seats and had a pretty nice bed. I will be so happy to be home and see my "honey". It was his birthday yesterday. I have plans to celebrate his birthday weekend with a Tim tam slam, and he has not decided on the flavor of cake yet. I have many more pictures to share as I get them sorted out. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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