Feb. 13

Feb. 13: Yesterday we were in Wellington - our last stop in New Zealand. It is a beautiful place. The mountains come right down to the city. We went on a tour that took us up Mt. Victoria for views of the city and then took us to a cable car which went up the side of a hill to the Botanic Gardens. The gardens were amazing! Beautiful roses and then they had a begonia house. Never knew that begonias grew to such size. Picture included! Then we went to an old church made entirely of wood. It was beautiful - the windows were great but the wood was amazing. It had been built 1866. No longer used as a church but is still used for weddings, etc. After that we toured the city - saw the government buildings and embassies. Being a Sunday most places were closed. So we came back to the ship and enjoyed a restful afternoon on the deck. It was our first mostly sunny day we had had in quite a while. Temperature was cool and it was pretty windy. Our best deal of the trip were $10 (New Zealand dollars so only about $6.50 US) phone cards! It was great to talk to those of you we talked to. From New Zealand no less. By my second trip to the phones the lines were long and I hated to take up too much phone time! We went to the Sail-Away party on deck yesterday afternoon. Hearing the Caribbean band Opus singing Low Places was really quite humorous but it was a beautiful day and the scenery couldn’t have been better. The wind was really strong and there was a beautiful rainbow across the water caused by the wind blown spray - look closely at the picture. This morning when we opened our door to go to breakfast there were some flowers for Ginnie - they were from our waitress, Lucille, and our waiter, Benjamin. It was really nice of them - they are great. All for now. Two sea days until Sydney. Also included is a picture of the Maori dancers from our day in Rotorua.