Blog du Wren

Guest Post du Mom

Since I have just returned to BdW headquarters from a month in New Zealand I have been invited to do a guest post to share my travels. See, I leave my children for a month and they suddenly get interested in me. I could wax poetic (if I could wax or be poetic) about the breathtaking beauty of New Zealand and the kindness of her people but I'll save the sappiness for the uncut version and try to hit some highlights. Flying into NZ gave me a sense of its awesome geology, eons of continental bumps and shakes are condensed into this small country-spiny-ridged mountain ranges; vast, lush, glacial valleys; lunarscape volcanic craters and plateaus with picture-perfect farms nestled in here and there. I hooked up with Kiwi native and good buddy Judith and we became far more intimate with this terrain on our 4-day tramp in the Marlborough Sound region of the South Island. We tramped the Cape Campbell Walkway following a goat track through grassy hills and sheep farms out to the eastern most point of the South Island. Lunch huts along the track were setup for proper tea and a chilled bottle of the local Sauvignon Blanc awaited us at each day-end farmstead. It was a challenging hike but fun and rewarding too.
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Thursday March 1 2007

File under: travel, New Zealand

Toggle Comments (18)

comment?

on Thu 01st Mar, 2007 06:38 pm PST Jule said:
wow what an adventure!
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on Thu 01st Mar, 2007 07:17 pm PST k root said:
What? A whole month! Are you retired? I'm envious.
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on Thu 01st Mar, 2007 07:44 pm PST Debbie said:
Oh, my! It looks so fun! Can't wait for the longer version.

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on Thu 01st Mar, 2007 08:55 pm PST Andrew said:
pfft. it's no Atlantic City! (yeayeah. i am jealous. so what.)
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on Thu 01st Mar, 2007 09:45 pm PST Trista said:
Awesome pics! Way to go, Mom! And, WElcome home!
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on Fri 02nd Mar, 2007 02:04 am PST Robin and Judith said:
hey girl we are so proud of you, knew you would find your way once on the road, miss you back here at Parklands Drive
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on Fri 02nd Mar, 2007 05:47 am PST Horge said:
Besides being a bit jealous that you got to go to NZ, I am also duly impressed with your web skills! Wren, your mom is even better at the web design stuff (like darkening the page when opening a new picture) than you are. I suggest you copy her cool picture-darkening idea for your coding, as well...
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on Fri 02nd Mar, 2007 12:35 pm PST Sean said:
Well did the toilets flush backwards or what??
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on Fri 02nd Mar, 2007 09:47 pm PST Niece Sonya said:
What a way to spend a month! Thank you for the post card!
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on Fri 02nd Mar, 2007 11:49 pm PST pamela said:
i can hear the laughter and i sit myself down in the lunch hut with you both....xxxx's
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on Sun 04th Mar, 2007 11:43 am PST Deanna said:
It is so wonderful to have the Matriarch of our little triangle home. I missed you terribly. I wish I could have packed up and went with you, but I am content with living vicariously through your beautiful post. You so deserved this holiday. Here's to great friends,relaxing, and good conversation.
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on Sun 04th Mar, 2007 01:25 pm PST Sean said:
I knew you'd have a good time. Those Aussies are so friendly.
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on Sun 04th Mar, 2007 03:53 pm PST Robin and Fran said:
Maggie,
What wonderful photos you've posted. You're inspiring us to go to New Zealand. Thanks, Wren, for making all this available. Bye the way, from one bird to another, we did our first geocache in Portland, thanks to you when we returned. Several of us almost slid off the slide off the side of the site but we managed, thanks to Dragan, to find the place.
It was great fun seeing all you guys and girls after all these years. Stop and see us if your in our parts.

Love,
Robin
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on Mon 05th Mar, 2007 09:01 pm PST Siri said:
Although I know the beautiful pictures can't compare to the real thing, what wonderful sights! Thank you for sharing. It certainly seems like a lovely getaway for a lovely lady.
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on Mon 12th Mar, 2007 02:11 am PST Mal Joyce said:
Oh Margaret you missed Wellington..the most georgeous little boutique city in the world...So i want u to 'blue underline' the word 'delicious'and give us a snap of Wgtn..We loved having u with us..still drinking 'Fidalgo Bay' "rain city roast" and not too bad given we think ourselves to be great coffee roasters and can't believe people actually drink Starbucks. I think that your photos and text have really done us proud. Thanks for visiting we could'nt have had any more wonderful representative from your fair country (given our current perceptions of the U S of A are more than a litle tainted by your current president). You are a wonderful woman within a divine heart.
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on Thu 22nd Mar, 2007 08:33 am PST amanda said:
i love the sheep picture, that guy's facial expression is priceless! i'm also totally jealous of the Maori Cultural sites & lunch huts, it would be awesome if we could have some of those here. thank you, thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to make a guest post!
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on Fri 13th Jul, 2007 08:11 am PDT Jim said:
What a wonderful narrative. And some very nice images really help take us along the road with you. NZ is somewhere Mary and I always wanted to go--glad you made it and shared your journey with us. I think Wren has the words and photo thing pretty well worked out in BdW. BUT, I think he needs to figure out a way to incorporate some of the other senses, like smell. That photo of the geyser just cries out for the wafting odor of sulfurous rotten eggs.jc
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on Fri 13th Jul, 2007 10:34 am PDT Saxtor said:
As personal of a blog as this is, you REALLY don't want Wren incorporating smell into the experience*.
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