Look who is enjoying the sun. It’s our daughter’s cat, Tui in New Zealand. The Tui bird is a black and white bird indigenous to New Zealand. Tui is a lovely cat. She was adopted from the SPCA.
Here she is again and you can see why she was named after the black and white Tui bird of New Zealand.
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.
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.
Now that we are retired, people sometimes ask if we get to travel. The answer is yes, to visit our three kids.We then get that poor you look from those who don’t really know where our children live. Those who do, know our children live in beautiful places well worth visiting. This photo of Tiare Iti (Little Flower in Polynesia) belongs to our younger daughter, who lives in New Zealand. It is spring there, and as we await winter, they look forward to their summer. Nicole sent these photos to us this morning and I could not resist sharing them. She is readying her boat for the summer sailing season.
As you can see , it is very colorful and cozy down below. Last spring I spent a month living aboard Tiare Iti and it was great fun.
Here you see part of Nicole’s book shelf, and her cat, Tui, wearing a life jacket. Tui is named for the black and white New Zealand Tui bird.
New Zealand is a lovely country and we are very fortunate to have a great reason to visit often.
I am looking forward, to sharing with you, in future posts, the beautiful places where our two other children live.