happy new year to all the pearls on my strand…

just back to welly and work after my first holiday season in nz and it was great.

after christmas we travelled north, as north as you can go on this land, where the sun was shining, flowers blooming, and the sea sparkling.

i really enjoyed this part of country connected to the sea and chock-a-block with the short but meaningful history of this youthful country:

p.s. back in [s]wellington and the wind is roaring and mid-summer i am wearing three layers.

no idea what this flower is, but it’s beautiful!

family outting in kerikeri

historic and world’s largest waka. it’s used in the annual observance of the treaty of waitangi

matai beach on the doubtless pennensular. this secluded beach was definitely worth the effort of getting there!

tiki carving on the portal of the waitangi marae

historic town (3 buildings i think) of kerikeri

a rural chapel outside of whangarei (fahn-ga-ray)

sunset at cape reinga…the very northern tip of aotearoa

cape reinga with giant sand dunes to the left

waitangi treaty grounds with gov busby’s colonial cottage and tradition maori marae

so you think these volcanoes are sleeping dragons…

this one erupted about 3 weeks ago just a few days after mcneicy and i were here!  a small cafe and farm on the desert highway on our way back to wellington. no one was killed but some trampers were injured.

well, the sand is racing through the hour glass…

this week was my birthday!!!!

my second birthday down under…in the land of the long white cloud. also, it was angie’s birthday and you can see fotos from our ‘wee little do’… yeah, it was fun.

thanks guys!!!

http://conceptualoyster.wordpress.com/angies-and-amandas-birthday-2007/

(here is the link, but also, you can find more photos to the right in ‘pages’)