Breanne's Request

This Pinecone Vase got a second place award

This Redwood Platter got a third place award.

This Lidded Dish with Circles got honorable mention

This Box Elder Platter didn't win anything except positive comments

This wavy bowl impressed lots of people, but not the judges

This Spiral Cut Bowl with lots of bumps was an "also ran".

Earthquake in Christchurch

Our trip to New Zealand was modified because the hotel we were to stay at had not completed repairs.  We stayed outside of town and took a day trip into the city.  We were told that every building sustained some damage from small cracks in stucco to high rise buildings that would have to be demolished.  Here are a few photos of what we saw.

Buildings with wood frames and brick exteriors often lost the bricks but stayed standing.

A large part of the city center is fenced off because of the danger and demolition activity.

You see these braces all over town holding up buildings that are at risk of falling down.  I guess they'll be attended to later.  The volume of work to be done is hard to grasp.

Lots of movement.  Near this poll was a stone bridge over a river with huge cracks in it.

Many of these building will have to come down.

If you look closely you can see major cracks in this facade, like so many older buildings in town.

Even the mighty will fall - this one has to come down too - and many other high rises.

Want somemores?

I like the trees; unfortunately most indigenous trees have been removed from the island.  But a few remain and are protected.  This is the Kauri Tree and only a few remain.  The grain of this tree is really beautiful.  A few were knocked down in a storm 60,000 years ago and remained hidden in a bog until a farmer uncovered them.

 Here's something else

This Monster tree was in the botanical gardens in Christchurch.  You can see some papers wrapped around it.  We were in Christchurch one day after the anniversary of the 2011 earthquake in which 185 people lost their lives.  The papers are the names of those people with messages of love written on them.  I think the tree is a Eucalyptus.

New Zealand Scenery

Here is the Auckland skyline from the harbor

We crossed the harbor to Devonport, a suburb of Auckland.  At 5pm people pour out of the office buildings in Auckland and head for the ferries to take them to the many towns across the water.  They're usually very quiet places; nice to live in.

Kathy and I liked Wellington best.

We liked Rotorua least.  The city lies along the shores of a huge shallow lake; all sitting at the bottom of an enormous caldera.  Problem is there are geyser vents all over town.  The place stinks.  The night we stayed there I woke up and thought I was going to heave.  The smart people live out of town.

One redeeming quality of Rotorua were some of the sights to see; among them the Black Swan - pretty cool

More Pics of New Zealand

So Valentines Day was 23 hours early for us in New Zealand.  We had been told this restaurant was very good.  We had a delightful dinner and are just about to have dessert.

A day or two later our bus broke down; fortunately it wasn't raining.  Everyone walked down the road a couple of miles to a pub (not much of one).  Since there were 44 of us the owner was overwhelmed.  A local woman came in for a drink and ended up acting as hostess.  A couple of hours later everyone had eaten and a new bus showed up.  It was a hoot and no one complained about the food.

Later that day we stopped at a Jade factory in a town on the west coast of South Island.  The factory was interesting, the beach was really nice, but the ice cream was awesome.

You Wouldn't Know...........

You wouldn't know by looking at these two that this was the end of 25-1/2 years of working together. We sent out the last invoice, paid the last major bill, took a photo and locked the doors. Only thing left to do is sweep the carpet - so to speak. Feeling a little unhitched.

800 Miles

So, OK my goal was to walk 910 miles this year (2-1/2 x 364), but after two bad colds I had to revise it down. But I don't feel too bad having only walked 800, last year I walked 730. For 2012 I'll just keep on keepin' on.