I'm back!
The trip home was actually great! An amazing statement, considering this is my second time coming home from New Zealand and going through groundhog day (2- 8th's of August), not sleeping well on the plane etc. This time, however, the timing of the flights, the amount of changes of plane and the knowledge that it would be long, made for a much better experience. I was in transit for only 23 hours, had shorter layovers all filled with busy making things like getting through US security and no scares like wrong gates or running late.
I now begin the task of sorting through my 1600 photos to winnow it down to something manageable. A lot of the photos are really notes and sketches for ideas, but I want to distill the trip-py ones so I can post them as a little travel album. I think that will be fun to go back through them and tell little stories that go with them.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Last days
Well, for all the time that this trip took to arrive, it sure seems to be over pretty darned fast.
Today is my second last one and I am resting. My foot is bothering me a little (overuse) and I have a marathon voyage home coming up tomorrow.
I leave at 4pm for Auckland, one hour, then wait till 7:30pm for my flight to Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles to Toronto after that and I will arrive on the same day I left! (datelines you know, I'm going back in time) I will arrive in Toronto at around 11:30pm or so Toronto time. I think I will be a llittle tired!
I have an exhibition to prepare for that will be in October. That's at the local library near home. The framing is all I need to do after I scope the space I have to fill.
I hope to start filtering pictures (1800 of them) and putting a few of the best into the blog for you to see. That and working up some of the paintings I have in mind will fill my time for the next BIG while.
When next I speak to you, I will be back in North America.
Today is my second last one and I am resting. My foot is bothering me a little (overuse) and I have a marathon voyage home coming up tomorrow.
I leave at 4pm for Auckland, one hour, then wait till 7:30pm for my flight to Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles to Toronto after that and I will arrive on the same day I left! (datelines you know, I'm going back in time) I will arrive in Toronto at around 11:30pm or so Toronto time. I think I will be a llittle tired!
I have an exhibition to prepare for that will be in October. That's at the local library near home. The framing is all I need to do after I scope the space I have to fill.
I hope to start filtering pictures (1800 of them) and putting a few of the best into the blog for you to see. That and working up some of the paintings I have in mind will fill my time for the next BIG while.
When next I speak to you, I will be back in North America.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Back in beautiful New Zealand
Well, we are back in NZ. The flight over was quick and uneventful, other than I watched the new Star Trek movie which was lots of fun and full of excitement.
I am doing the last of my touring around this city. I took in the Wellington Zoo, which I last saw two years ago. It has changed a great deal and is a wonderful place to visit for a good portion of the day. The weather was perfect!
Today, I got myself a day pass for the buses and headed for the west coast of the city, Porirua. Today was very rainy and blustery and I stood on the edge of the bay with my pants whipping at my legs, watching the gulls just float in the air neither going forward nor back. There were black swans riding it out in the water.
I found a lovely museum there with an exhibit of Tapa (paperbark cloth) from Fiji. I was very lucky in that I was able to purchase a piece that had been made by Fijian artists during a visit and demonstration about three weeks ago.
I transfered the second digital card of pictures to a flash drive. I now have 1600 pictures to sort out. What I would like to do with them when I get home, is publish a few at a time with a story that goes with them. There were a lot of incidents that I will only remember if I see the picture.
I've also wracked up a great number of books read during this trip. When you go to a hostel, you are too tired to do anything other than read or watch TV. Most of the time, the TV was tuned to the Simpsons, or for a short while in Australia, Masterchef (which I enjoyed watching), so what else do you do but read.
The interesting thing is how, in places like that, there are books you can pick up, read and take with you only to drop off at a different place once you've finished. In Rotorua, I picked up a book by a Saskatchewan writer! How bizarre is that? I picked one up the other day by another Canadian writer. I've read Louis L'Amour, Rohinton Mistrie, MacCaul's No.1 Ladies detective agency (2 actually) Ruth Park, a NZ native, with a novel and another, her autobiography found at a flea market about two days after I finished the novel. Another novel by another Australian writer and a couple of mysteries, one stinky and one good.
I'm flying back to Canada on the 8th of August, just two days shy of my 61st birthday. No big whoop, even 60 was no big deal. Just glad I had the opportunity to do this trip while I could.
Maybe now I will be ready to get a dog and have the adventures only they can bring to one's life.
What do you think?
I am doing the last of my touring around this city. I took in the Wellington Zoo, which I last saw two years ago. It has changed a great deal and is a wonderful place to visit for a good portion of the day. The weather was perfect!
Today, I got myself a day pass for the buses and headed for the west coast of the city, Porirua. Today was very rainy and blustery and I stood on the edge of the bay with my pants whipping at my legs, watching the gulls just float in the air neither going forward nor back. There were black swans riding it out in the water.
I found a lovely museum there with an exhibit of Tapa (paperbark cloth) from Fiji. I was very lucky in that I was able to purchase a piece that had been made by Fijian artists during a visit and demonstration about three weeks ago.
I transfered the second digital card of pictures to a flash drive. I now have 1600 pictures to sort out. What I would like to do with them when I get home, is publish a few at a time with a story that goes with them. There were a lot of incidents that I will only remember if I see the picture.
I've also wracked up a great number of books read during this trip. When you go to a hostel, you are too tired to do anything other than read or watch TV. Most of the time, the TV was tuned to the Simpsons, or for a short while in Australia, Masterchef (which I enjoyed watching), so what else do you do but read.
The interesting thing is how, in places like that, there are books you can pick up, read and take with you only to drop off at a different place once you've finished. In Rotorua, I picked up a book by a Saskatchewan writer! How bizarre is that? I picked one up the other day by another Canadian writer. I've read Louis L'Amour, Rohinton Mistrie, MacCaul's No.1 Ladies detective agency (2 actually) Ruth Park, a NZ native, with a novel and another, her autobiography found at a flea market about two days after I finished the novel. Another novel by another Australian writer and a couple of mysteries, one stinky and one good.
I'm flying back to Canada on the 8th of August, just two days shy of my 61st birthday. No big whoop, even 60 was no big deal. Just glad I had the opportunity to do this trip while I could.
Maybe now I will be ready to get a dog and have the adventures only they can bring to one's life.
What do you think?
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