As many of you know, our friend Jackie visited us for the last few weeks from Iowa. John had a drinking partner for a few weeks and we had a opportunity to take some time off work and show her around. As it was Jackie's 2nd trip to NZ, we visited a few places slightly off the tourist track.
The visit started off with attending the Bronze final game for the Rugby World Cup between Wales and Australia (Ozzy won unfortunately) where Jackie got an appreciation for the finer points of rugby and a little insight into the national craze for rugby. For the RWC final game (NZ vs France), we headed into Auckland city and watched the game with at least 200,000 of our closest friends. The bars had queues of a least 50 people deep to get in and all the fan zones were filled to capacity. You literately heard a collective gasps from the entire city when something good or bad happened. The All Blacks kept the country on the edge of the seat until the last seconds and thankfully pulled out a win. The Viaduct erupted into a mass of revelers and was the biggest crowd I have ever been in. The next day, we attended the victory parade with that same crowd.
By this time, we were ready to get out of Auckland crowds and see some of the real New Zealand. We flew to Blenheim and did an eco walking tour along the coast and a bike ride around the vineyards in the rain. From Blenheim, we went into the Marborough Sound and stayed in Endeavour Inlet at the Furneaux Lodge. We walked one section of the Queen Charlotte Track and spent a day doing a short walk around the Lodge and kayaking. Next we headed to Wellington to take in the capital city on Halloween weekend. John and I had to go back to work than while Jackie headed on to Napier for a few days of R&R.
Here is a link to pictures for those interested
Our next big adventure: Thailand at Christmas!
1 comments:
Looks like you all had lots of fun when Jackie was there! Thanks for sharing the pictures with those of us back in the states.
Beckie
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