Waking Up in New Zealand

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Tui-1 This is Tui, our daughter and grandson’s cat. She is named for the black and white tui bird, indigenous to New Zealand, and  she’s the first one to greet me every morning. I still wake early here in New Zealand, just as I do at home in California. I’m at the computer, enjoying my morning coffee, just like home. It’s interesting how we have our habits no matter where we travel.

Large pink flower I’ve been here almost a week and have settled into the routine nicely. I’m in the Mount Maunganui area on the North Island. We are a block from the beach and I feel like I’m in San Clemente, California. The other day we saw two people riding a can-am Spyder like mine. Watching surfers cross the road, surfboards tucked under their arms, makes me feel as if I never left Southern California. I do not drive here, because vehicles and people walk and drive on the opposite side of the road. I am not brave enough to try. This area has few traffic lights, but many round-abouts, and that too is a challenge for me.  Thanks to my I-phone I can instantly be in touch with family at home. I do have to remember that we are currently 19 hours ahead of California — but I find it easier to think of it as five hours behind, and one day ahead.

I highly recommend Air New Zealand, the airline that brought me here. Los Angeles to Auckland flights usually leave in the evening. Air NZ serves a wonderful dinner, and every passenger has their own movie screen for watching the latest movies. I usually get several hours of sleep before Air NZ serves a tasty breakfast. We arrive very early NZ time, 5:30 a.m, and if I stay awake until local bed time, I find I’ve adjusted nicely. It really is a very easy trip. Honestly! The flight is 12 hours, but not a difficult one.

The people here are wonderful, and very friendly, but I will leave that for another posting.  I have not posted in several days, and would like to get this one out. Today we are going to tour Comvita, a  company that produces and exports honey. I’ll take photos and report on it tomorrow. Bye for now, from New Zealand.

A Day Trip to La Jolla Cove, California

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100_4328Yesterday, we spent the afternoon exploring the town of La Jolla, California, ending at La Jolla Cove. It couldn’t have been better. The weather was perfect and the Pacific Ocean sparkled. This is the time of year to see sea lions and their pups at La Jolla Cove. We didn’t know this as we headed off to explore. Early last year, my photography class had traveled to San Diego for a field trip that included La Jolla.  If you want to see more of that trip, please take a look at my previous post  Field trip To San Diego. On that trip I’d first seen the beauty of La Jolla. Up until then, it had been just a town on the way to San Diego, a sign on the freeway heading south. Ever since then I’d wanted to share its beauty with my husband, so we went exploring.

We took our dog Annika with us on the drive, but dogs weren’t allowed anywhere near the mother sea lions or pups. Easy to understand why. I stayed up above the beach with Annika, while Martin went down to take a few photos. He took the one below of three sea lions snoozing and soaking up the sun.

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I took this next photo from up above while Martin was down on the beach. I thought I was taking a long distance photo of several cormarrands, but later while editing my picture I realized there were several sea lions basking in the sun along with the birds … such a wonderful surprise.

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If you live in (or plan on visiting) Southern California, be sure to take time to stop in La Jolla. You won’t be disappointed.