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| This cria who’s birth we were able to attend when we first arrived on the farm was born only 30 minutes earlier. |
Normally, a five-hour drive to get to an airport would be too long in our perspective. But, New Zealand is so beautiful, we have no qualms about the long drive, especially when we’re leaving early enough we won’t feel rushed.
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| When we first arrived and the flowers were still blooming, we particularly loved this photo of Mount Taranaki. |
On this return trip to the airport in Auckland, we won’t feel compelled to stop to take photos when we’ll have completed all of our NZ photos unless, of course, we see an irresistible sight.
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| A one-day-old cria nursing. |
Upon arrival in Auckland, we’ll make our way to the car rental facility, drop off the vehicle taking their free shuttle to the airport. Our flight isn’t until 5:55 pm.
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| Our favorite neighborhood cow who’d walked up to the fence to see us when we were on a walk. |
We’ve finished most of the packing except for the clothes we’re wearing today and the few toiletries we’ll use through tomorrow morning. Staying overnight in Sydney, we’ll both will wear the same clothes tomorrow and again on the day, we board the cruise, only changing underwear.
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| This photo made us laugh over and over especially with the shorter alpacas ears down and other alpaca’s ears at full attention. |
Spending two weeks on a ship with limited wardrobes along with the cost of having laundry done by the ship’s laundry service (necessary mid-cruise) getting two sets of clothing dirty before we even board the cruise makes no sense. If we spill on ourselves, we’ll haul something clean out of a suitcase.
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| Grapes growing at the OkurkuruWinery which we visited on two occasions. |
Once on the cruise, we have enough to wear to avoid frequent repeats. Jeans and khakis are allowed in the main dining room except on dress-up nights. Shorts and nice tee shirts are acceptable everywhere on the ship during the day.
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| This peculiar occurrence, never observed by Trish and Neil, had us ready to go into the paddock to help these two tangled alpacas. The larger alpaca wasn’t too happy with this situation. Fortunately, they managed to break apart. Once we knew they were OK, we couldn’t stop laughing. |
We weighed our bags moving items around to reduce the baggage fees we’ll pay later today for the third checked bag. It’s tricky weighing the bags on our stand-on travel scale. Tom weighs himself first and then weighs himself again holding the bag.
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| We visited the Taranaki Cathedral Church of St. Mary in downtown New Plymouth on its last open day when it was closing permanently due to earthquake instability. |
The only way we could weigh the bags is in the upstairs bathroom with a solid surface floor with the remaining floors carpeted. Once Tom lifted the large bags he barely had room to stand on the scale and not bump into something.
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| This photo, taken through the glass in the kitchen window, was the first of many times she peered inside watching me prepare dinner. Love this! |
It all worked out when both of our larger bags weighed under the allowance of 30 kg, 66 pounds. The remaining third bag, based on our reshuffling everything should weigh under 20 kg, 44 pounds, resulting in fees of NZ $522, US $362. It’s frustrating to have to pay so much for the extra bag but as hard as we try we can’t dispose of one more item in our possession.
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| Tom at Taylor Dental in New Plymouth on the day he had his abscessed tooth pulled a painless and inexpensive experience at NZ $170, US $115. |
Today, when all is done, including both today’s and tomorrow’s post, we’ll spend time with the alpacas, hand-feeding those interested and laughing over the playful antics of the youngsters.
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| There are countless creeks and streams in New Zealand. We’d hope for sunny day photos but many times when we went out for the day it started sunny and clouded over within the first hour. |
It’s not easy leaving here. We have many memories we’ll carry with us, some of which we’re sharing in today’s and tomorrow’s post as our favorite photos. Tomorrow, we’ll share the expenses for our 87 days in New Zealand.
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| We visited Plas Mawr, a historic architecturally interesting home by invitation of its owner June, whom we met while grocery shopping. |
Unfortunately, the Internet signal here doesn’t allow the posting of as many photos as we’d have preferred and, with the many photos we took while here it was difficult to pick and choose favorites. Many others were left behind that our less frequent readers may have missed and possibly enjoyed.
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| When Trish and Neil went on holiday, we watched over the birth of two crias, an extraordinary experience for both of us. |
Feel free to go through the archives on the right side of our daily homepage to see any posts you may have missed for this location or any other locations, all the way back to 2012 when we first began posting. To access each year, month or day, click on the little black triangle to open that period of time.
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| The front dining room at the Table Restaurant where we dined on Valentine’s Day. |
We’ll be back tomorrow with the final expenses and a heartfelt goodbye to this special location and superior experience.
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| Beautiful flowers when we visited the Pukekura Botanical Garden near the mountain. |
May your day bring you a superior experience as well!
Photo from one year ago today, April 14, 2015:
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| Sunset in Kauai, one year ago. For more photos, please click here. |