Amazon Rain Forest and Riverboat down the Amazon

09/03/202410/07/2024Irene

September 3 Tuesday Amazon Rain Forest Riverboat down the Amazon

Accommodations: CEIBA TOPS LODGE, IQUITOS

We learned during our ruins tour a few days ago that Lima gets only 0.8 inches of rain per year!!! How do the flowers that are blooming all around survive? Apparently, twice a day, a truck comes by with water and sprays the beds throughout the town. This differs greatly from the Amazon where it rains 250 days a year, so I’m pretty sure while we’re here, we will experience rain.

Last night since we weren’t very hungry, we had a small burger with a small fry at McDonald’s (of course) and then went back to the hotel. Just as we came in, a huge tour group arrived with lots of luggage. The two elevators are small and can really comfortably only hold two people with luggage. Allan said…We’ll be here all night waiting for the elevator. So he went over to the desk and asked if we could use the freight elevator. They said yes… and a man accompanied us in the freight elevator and off we went to our floor.

We were up very early to leave the hotel by 6:00 am to board the bus which took us to the airport for our flight to Iquitos. They provided a nice breakfast in the restaurant and they took our large suitcase to hold for us until we return from the Amazon.

A local guide met us in the lobby and walked us to the bus that drove us to the airport. She accompanied and guided us through getting boarding passes and checking our small suitcases. The luggage had to weigh 15 lbs or less, and we all passed the weight limit and off we went. We bid goodbye to the guide and went to find our gate for departure.

The airport was very crowded but we boarded rather quickly. We flew Latam… and it was a very nice flight.

When we arrived in Iquitos, we picked up our luggage, and met another guide, Caesar, as well as a bus driver, who drove us through the towns to the boat that we would sail along the Amazon in. We will then arrived at Ceiba (pronounced SAY bah) Tops Lodge. Caesar is a naturalist and will be our guide throughout the Amazon.

We drove through the towns along the way, taking in the sites and then we boarded our boat and headed for the hour ride to the lodge, cruising down the iconic Amazon.

The Amazon is two miles wide here and is said to be the longest river in the world… 2,010 miles. We saw many boats going up and down and some were carrying supplies for the town of Iquitos. A banana boat passed us and we could smell the sweet fragrance. Oil, logging, and tourism are the biggest industries at present in Iquitos.

We arrived at the lodge and went right away for lunch. I had the chicken and Allan had the dorado fish. A ceviche salad was served with mushrooms and palm hearts. Delicious! We had a juice made from purple corn – chicha morada – and we had a dessert like gelatin made from it as well. The chicha is highly nutritious and praised for its antioxidant properties.

After lunch we were able to go to our private lodge replete with a king bed, walk in shower, and a large bottle of water for drinking and to use for brushing our teeth. Caesar said we can fill our water bottles if need be at the restaurant where there is a huge cooler of fresh water. We also have WiFi in our cabin which is wonderful since WiFi is usually only at the restaurant. We brought electrolyte packets with us to add to our water bottles since we do expect to be sweating in the humidity quite a bit.

During lunch Caesar told us he lived as a child in a village on the Amazon and he had no electricity or running water. They actually drank from and bathed in the water from the Amazon River. Of course you have to be indoctrinated to that water from birth. If we took a drink, it would not bode well for us.

There are a few lodges throughout the Amazon, the brainchild of a man named Peter Jensen. He came one day to Caesar’s village and he met Caesar’s father who was a master carpenter. His father was hired by Peter to build the different lodges throughout the area. His father, however, did not build the lodge we are staying in.

After resting for a few hours, we met Caesar and he took us on a nature walk into the jungle. He said never go by ourselves, or try to follow any of the paths alone since the rainforest is very dangerous. There are many poisonous snakes. (Ummm… remember yesterday the guide said there haven’t been snakes in 20 years in the rainforest? Ha! Not true!) Caesar said there are many other dangerous creatures as well and we need to always be with him. He also said that the rainforest is their pharmacy as there are many medicinal plants around that are used to cure different ailments. Where he lived, there was a plant that was used to counteract the bite of a poisonous snake. If you got to it in time and drank the juice from the root and put a poultice made from the root onto the bite and changed the dressing and drank the juice every half hour, your chance of survival was excellent.

We saw beautiful flowers and listened to the parakeets that were in the trees. We didn’t see them however. But we did see some Tamarin monkeys high up in the treetops.

Then, once deep in the jungle, Caesar told us to keep walking but not to look up until he told us to because he has a big surprise for us. We walked into a clearing and he said look at me…now turn around… and open your eyes! WOW!!!!! We saw a HUGE Ceiba tree for which the lodge is actually named for. Ceiba trees are a unique natural wonder to behold. They grow up to 150 feet tall and can be hundreds of years old. The base was very huge with roots extending above ground. There were vines hanging down from the branches and all kinds of wildlife were tucked inside the foliage.
Caesar said people thought the tree, when touched, would bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. We took a photo op at the tree and then we each went over to touch the tree for luck.

While Allan was touching the tree, Caesar said excitedly.. oh wow… a poisonous red frog is crawling right where you are. I thought he was kidding and trying to scare Allan but no…. There really was a poisonous red dart frog. (And actually…we saw the same type frog when we were in the Baltimore aquarium. Yikes!!!) So I guess the tree did bring Allan luck since the frog didn’t bite him as it crawled past his hand.

No matter who we talk with, no one seems concerned about mosquitos. I’m not sure if they haven’t read that dengue fever is on the rise in Peru but no matter what, we’re still bathing ourselves in Sawyers. There is a pool here but we didn’t bring our suits to the Amazon. The thought of covering every inch of our bodies in insect spray is not that appealing to us.

We all met for a pre-dinner drink and then had a delicious dinner. It started off with a wonderful soup with dorado fish and pasta and I had chicken with spaghetti that was seasoned perfectly.

Early to bed since we are meeting at 5:55 am to take a boat along the Amazon for bird watching.
Buenos noches.

Red frog

Right before Caesar saw the poisonous frog

The Ceiba tree

Bar and where we eat our meals

Our boat taking us down the Amazon

Along the Amazon

Getting close to where our lodge is located.

Meeting the folks going to the Amazon with us

09/02/202409/10/2024Irene 3 Comments

September 2 , Monday

We had a leisurely breakfast and while we were eating, we met one of the couples who will be going to the Amazon with us, Richard and Mary. We had a nice chat and then finished breakfast and went back to our room to pack for the Amazon. We can only take a small piece of luggage that weighs under 15 lbs but we can take our day pack and they won’t be weighing that. We don’t need to bring much water because apparently water will be provided in the Amazon for us.

At 11 am we met Sandra, our local guide, as well as the other couple that will be with us on the trip, Mary and Greg. Sandra gave us info about what to expect in the Amazon and then we went on a walking tour of Lima. Since Allan and I had done a lot of walking around yesterday, we were familiar with most of the area. Sandra took us to get some money exchanged, just in case we want to buy trinkets from the tribe in the Amazon since they are unfamiliar with anything but local money and would not take US dollars.

We walked along by the Pacific ocean which was very nice and stopped at Parque del Amor (Park of Love), where stands the monument of El Beso (The Kiss), a statue of a man and a woman who are embraced and kissing. El Beso is the work of the Peruvian artist Victor Delfin. We then went off to have lunch at a local restaurant. Allan and I had scallops with parmesan for appetizers and then Allan had a seafood and rice dish and I had shredded chicken with rice and potatoes. We also had a nice Malbec with lunch. Dessert was ice cream for Allan and I had triple milk cake. The cake was very sweet and since I don’t usually eat dessert, I only tasted it.

Sandra bought some fruit from a vender in the street and the waiter cut it up for us to share. It was very good and very sweet. The name of the fruit is Chirimoya (Custard Apple in English) and it really does taste like custard.

The two couples went off to tour the ruins but since we had already visited them, Allan and I walked back to the hotel with Sandra. Sandra called another guide to ask about wearing boots in the Amazon because of the snakes and leeches. The man said snakes haven’t been a problem in twenty years. He also said we’ll get boots if it pours, but other than that, we will be fine. Good to know!

We leave tomorrow at 6 am for our 2 hour flight to the Amazon, so it will be an early night.

Chirimoya fruit

Love statue – The Kiss

Accomodation: Jose Antonio

Sightseeing in Lima, Peru

09/01/202410/07/2024Irene

September 1 Sunday United was wonderful with check-in for our flight yesterday. I don’t know if it was because it was a Saturday or because we had already pre-checked our luggage, but no lines and our checked bag was collected, put on the conveyer belt, and off we went for a nice lunch in the United lounge.

The flight was fine – Made it to Lima a little earlier than expected. We breezed through customs since a lady told us to go on the diplomats line which was very short. We must have looked important. LOL!

Our luggage arrived and some agent came over and said we needed to show her our luggage tags before we could leave. She didn’t ask anyone else to do so. I guess she didn’t realize we were “diplomats”. Anyway, we met our driver and he took us to the van for the trip to the hotel. While we were walking, men were following us closely…they didn’t realize at first we were with a driver and wanted to offer us rides. We were warned against this. One guy walked very close to us, but once he realized we were ignoring him and sticking close to our driver, he walked away.

We were trying to get out of the parking lot and after the gate arm lifted, we had to wait for someone to open the padlock on another gate so we could finally leave. Too funny.

The ride to the hotel was through a rather depressed looking area. However, even though it was around 10:30 at night, people were sitting outdoors or walking around and chatting with each other. I saw a few large commuter buses go by and they were filled with people. Wondered where they were going or coming from so late at night.

Right before we got to the hotel, we bumped along a cobblestone street for quite a ways. It really scrambled our brains!

Our hotel is nice and in a lovely neighborhood. Very clean and we received 8 complementary bottles of water from the front desk. You can’t drink the water in Peru so it is important to have a good supply of bottled water. If we buy water, we can only purchase in a reputable store since sometimes, in stores that are a bit unsavory, the bottles are filled with tap water and glued shut so you think they’re sealed.

Had a good night’s sleep and since we are only an hour difference from PA, no jet lag. Breakfast was okay… Minimal offerings but they did have an omelet station although Allan didn’t think the omelet he had was that great. I had a delicious slice of whole wheat that was much larger than a normal slice, and the crust was already removed! I toasted it and put cheese and scrambled eggs inside and made a sandwich. Very tasty. We should eat/drink dairy when we take our malaria pills and fortunately there is yogurt available.

We decided to walk around Lima and visit Huaca Pucllana, an archaeological site. On our way to the ruins, we passed a beautiful church and I used my minimal Spanish to inquire as to the name. The lady told me it was Inglesia Virgen Milagrosa, built around 1930. It is located at Parque Kennedy, a beautiful park with flowers blooming everywhere. There were also cats running around everywhere and the park has little houses for the cats to go into when the weather gets chilly. As we walked along we saw people on bikes, scooters, and skates, enjoying the beautiful Sunday morning.

We arrived at the ruins of Huaca Pucllana, which has been restored within the last 40 years and has become one of the main tourist attractions of Lima. It is built almost entirely by adobe bricks that were handmade and baked in the sun. The bricks are placed to withstand earthquakes, which was a pretty ingenuous feat considering that the site is over 1,000 years old. It stands 25 meters high and once stood as a pyramid. We were lucky that when we arrived, an English speaking guide was starting a tour and he took us all over the ruins, even climbing to the top. It was very interesting. As an aside, he told us to be prepared if you go from Lima to Cusco by plane (which we will be doing) because altitude sickness can be a problem. He said the most important thing to do, besides taking altitude sickness meds, is to take it easy and not try to begin touring right away. We’ll see how that goes.

There were some llamas and alpacas at the ruins and also a beautiful vegetable garden. I’m glad we decided to pay the ruins a visit and were lucky enough to get a great English speaking guide.

There was a restaurant right outside the ruins called Huaca Pucllana where we decided to have lunch and try some Peruvian fare. We each had a delicious pounded beef tenderloin with a fried egg on top. It was accompanied by fried plantains and a rice and beans pâté that the waiter poured olive oil over. We had a glass of wine and the whole meal, tip included came to $65 dollars! The tour was a total of $4 (we got the senior discount) so all in all, a bargain day.

I asked our waiter about mosquitos in Lima and he said no worries. There aren’t any to speak of. We told him we were going to the Peruvian Amazon and he said…Oh…be very careful! The mosquitoes are all over and carry dengue fever. Put lots of insect repellent on. We knew that, but to hear him say it so seriously was daunting. Well… No turning back now! We’ll just be very careful.

We got a little lost trying to get back to our hotel, but a kind man on a scooter helped us and we finally arrived back. We probably will have a bite to eat later and then it will be time for bed.

Inglesia Virgen Milagrosa

Huaca Pucllana

Huaca Pucllana

Huaca Pucllana

Huaca Pucllana

One of the cat houses at Parque Kennedy

On our way to Peru and Ecuador

08/31/202409/10/2024Irene 2 Comments

August 31 Saturday – Depart U.S.

We’re off on another adventure…this time so South America touring Machu Picchu and the Galapagos. We are also going on the pre-trip to the Peruvian Amazon but opted out of the Bolivia post-trip.

There are many biting bugs in the Peruvian Amazon and actually all throughout Peru and Ecuador, so we have taken typhoid pills for protection. We started taking malaria pills that we will take for the entire duration of the trip and then 7 days after our return. Since the altitude will be over 12,000 feet at times, we will be taking altitude sickness pills and since the Galapagos Humboldt current can cause a rocky cruise, we will also have scopolamine patches. YIKES!!!

It’s a little daunting…particularly since dengue fever is on the rise and there is no vaccine or pill to take for protection. We just hope that by wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants that have been treated with permethrin, as well as using picaridin insect spray, we will be protected. Fingers crossed.

Allan recently read about an indigenous people that live along the Amazon that came out of the jungle in 2022, and, using a 6-foot arrow, killed a logger. The loggers have been decimating the trees, and I guess the tribe said enough is enough.

The good news is…we won’t be wielding machetes or chainsaws while we traverse the Amazon. The other good news is… we will be meeting an indigenous tribe on our itinerary… and they apparently will be teaching us how to use blow guns. Maybe we can take one with us…just in case we are confused along the way with loggers. LOL!

As always…please follow along on the blog. I hope to post every day but will not be posting on the ship in the Galapagos since we won’t have wifi.

Accommodations: JOSE ANTONIO, LIMA

Faith

08/06/202402/17/2024Irene

Whie driving the other day, I spotted a church that had a sign out front reading

“HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR
FAITHBOOK TODAY?”

I’m sure the pastor thought it was a clever play on words that he overheard someone say…but you’ve got to ask yourself..

Did that person have a lisp?

The Olympics

07/26/202402/17/2024Irene

Being the mother of four boys, every day was Olympic Day for me when they were growing up. Here are the highlights of some of the Olympic events that took place in our home over the years:

Broad Jump: What a child did as he vaulted down the stairs to the kitchen for breakfast, bounding over the last five steps.

Pole vaulting: Leaping into midair to smack the wall above a door frame with hands that have just held a dripping jelly donut, to see if his fingerprints are higher than the ones previously left by his brother.

Diving: Realizing a tad too late that nose diving off the top of a swing set with an open umbrella doesn’t bode very well for the jumper.

Speed Skating: Deftly accomplished by a child running full throttle and then sliding across a wooden floor in stockinged feet.

Weight lifting: Hoisting a brother (usually a younger one) up in the air while bellowing “TATTLETALE!!”

Shot put: The event where one child throws an object (usually round and resembling a baseball) at another brother’s head, said object being thrown at the velocity of a speeding bullet.

100 meter dash: One brother running after a fleeing sibling while screaming “GIVE IT BACK!!”

Fencing: Carried out by a snapping motion with a rolled up towel rather than an epee.

Wrestling: Four boys. Need I say more???

Fortunately, their mother was an Olympic gold medal winner in boxing. Ear boxing to be exact.

Tweezers…a wonderful invention

06/04/202406/12/2024Irene

I don’t know who invented these wonderful implements, but I am greatly indebted to them. Tweezers come in very handy, especially now that I am approaching the age where pesky hairs appear in places you don’t want to know about. If I didn’t have a tweezers in my arsenal, I definitely would be looking like Vincent Van Gogh within a week.

I actually owe my life to a tweezers. (Well, not really; that was supposed to get your attention so that you read on!)

Many years ago, before the dawn of our children, Allan and I were upstate on vacation enjoying a dinner in a restaurant. I decided to have the turkey with all the trimmings and was eating it with gusto when suddenly a bone got stuck in my throat. I kept trying to dislodge it with bread to know avail, so I finally said to Allan “I think I have a bone in my throat…let’s go.” We went back to the car and he got the flashlight and looked down my throat. “Yes dear,” he calmly stated, “You indeed have a bone like a Lilliputian arrow stuck on the side of your throat.”

Now up until this point, I was talking fine, but once confirmation was made as to the bone situation in my throat I immediately scream whispered “GET ME TO A HOSPITAL.” Allan mused to himself “If I only had a tweezers”. Now I’m thinking…great…fine time for him to be thinking about shaping my eyebrows, but then a real sense of panic came over me as I realized what he wanted the tweezers for. Knowing that the man had obviously gone mad, I repeated my whispered plea, this time with teeth clenched, “GET ME TO A HOSPITAL”. But we were in a town God knows where, and it was dark. Where is a hospital when you need one? Allan says again…”If I could just get a tweezers”. With that, he starts the car and within a few blocks, he sees a 5 and 10 cent store. He jumps out, but they had just closed. He’s banging on the door saying ” My wife has a bone in her throat ” (quite dramatically, I might add) “and I need to buy a tweezers”.

Now I’m in the car thinking the man has gone over the edge and I’m seriously thinking of climbing into the drivers seat and taking myself to the hospital, but the thought of leaving him at the door of the store and having him possibly be taken off to a nut house by the 5 and 10 cent staff kept me glued to the seat. The people mercifully unlocked the door and let him in to buy the tweezers. They made him pay for the tweezers right away, too, obviously not realizing the direness of my situation. Now mind you, they had to find the key to the register, unlock it and fire it up. Newspaper headlines began to run through my head “Women Succumbs To Bone in Throat As Husband is Delayed at Cash Register Paying for Life Saving Tweezers”.

He eventually came out with this long, pinch-nosed deal and said “Open wide”.. like he’s a dentist or something. I’m thinking, I hope this works or I’ll be at the hospital with a bone AND a tweezers protruding from my throat. Try explaining THAT to the hospital staff!!! But, Allan, without hesitation, deftly put that tweezers down my gullet and plucked that bone from my throat. My hero!!

It was quite awhile, however, before I stopped pulverizing my turkey at family Thanksgiving celebrations and tweezing my eyebrows on occasion can still gives me the willies!

The DISHWASHER Escapade circa 1972

05/07/202405/04/2024Irene

When Allan and I were first married and living in an apartment in Floral Park, I had an encounter with a dishwasher.

Growing up, the only dishwasher that my family had was me. I would stand at the sink in our kitchen and wash and rinse the dishes and stack them in the drainboard to be dried later. I knew nothing of the workings of an automatic dishwasher, so you can imagine my elation when we moved into our little love nest and I realized that I now had a machine to do the dirty work. It was a top loader and it rolled out from under the counter top whenever its services were required.

A number of months went by and one Saturday while on a cleaning binge, I thought to myself “Gee, I guess it’s time I cleaned the dishwasher”. DUH!! I was obviously not the brightest newlywed on the block – about as sharp as a marble to be precise. I mean really, doesn’t the dishwasher interior get “clean” every time you hit the “Start Cycle” button? And to further prove that I was indeed not the sharpest knife in the drawer, I decided that it needed to be cleaned with DISH detergent. That’s what I had used all those years to make dishes sparkling clean, so why not use it to clean the inside of the dishwasher?

Exactly how much dish washing liquid a village idiot should put into a dishwasher to have the inside come out sparkling clean, no one knows. Suffice it to say, I obviously used a tad too much; a little bit of that stuff goes a long way. And of course, since I wanted the dish washer to be super clean, I probably added a decent amount. And maybe a touch more after that.

Things were going well at first. The dishwasher filled with steamy hot water and started the cycle. Then suddenly, after about 10 minutes, froth started to ooze from the top of the machine. Then bubbles started coming out even faster, cascading down the front, streaming down to the floor and making their way to the side door. “I Love Lucy” episodes had nothing on me.

I hit the “cancel” button, but alas, it was too late. Upon opening the door of the washer, bubbles literally exploded all over and they kept coming, and coming, and coming.

I yelled for my dearest who ran in and practically knocked himself out navigating the slippery floor. We grabbed some pots and started scooping bubbles (which were now about a foot high) to deposit out the door of the house and onto the patio. Now we not only had bubbles all over the kitchen…the suds were starting to fill up our patio.

And still the bubbles kept coming. Did you know the more you try to add water to bubbles, the soapier the situation becomes? Yeah, well I didn’t know that and as I tried to rinse out the dishwasher and douse the floor with water to defeat the foam, it just made matters worse.

I’m sure Allan was rethinking his spousal choice by now, but at least he couldn’t say he married a slob. We had the cleanest dish washer, kitchen floor and cement patio on the block.

Little did he know way back then, that the adventures with his bride would continue for all these years. And that’s why our blog is titled “The Escapades of Pookie and Allan!”

Leaving Auckland for home

05/05/202404/08/2025Irene

Please scroll down to find the beginning of the trip.

Our flight was at 7:40 pm so we had the whole day to relax before the coach took us all to the airport.
We slept late and had a really nice breakfast and then went off to tour the Art Gallery.

There were some interesting works in the gallery…in particular, the collection donated by hedge-fund pioneer Julian Robertson, who developed a deep affection for New Zealand after taking a sabbatical there with his family in 1978. His wife Josie and he donated their artwork to New Zealand because they were so impressed with the Māori children and how those kids were in awe of the paintings when they looked at them when they were first displayed. Julian and Josie felt they wanted to donate their collection where it would be appreciated. The donation comprises 15 works by famous artists…. Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dalí, André Derain, Henri Fantin-Latour, Paul Gauguin, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso. The collection also features paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture. Allan knew of Julian since Julian was the keynote speaker in a morning financial conference years ago, and Allan was on a panel at the conference in the afternoon.

The Robertson’s lived in New York City in an apartment overlooking Central Park and the apartment had all of the art on display. One painting by Picasso was hung in the bathroom because his wife didn’t like it.

We had a quick bite to eat and then sat with the group in the hotel lobby till it was time to leave.

We said goodbye to our new friends amid tears and Allan and I boarded our Air New Zealand flight. Our new friend Debbie was also on this flight. The flight was extremely turbulent for hours with everything bouncing around. You could hardly eat or drink…the liquids were slurping over the rims of the glasses.

Around 10 pm after dinner was served, flight attendants came around and made up our beds. I have to say, the mattress they put down was the thickest and the most comfortable mattress I’ve ever had on a business class flight. I slept great.

In the morning they dismantled our beds and served breakfast and we arrived in Houston. Going through security and rechecking our bags for the flight to Newark was a breeze.

Unfortunately, our flight to Newark was delayed for over two hours so we didn’t take off until much later than planned. We finally arrived in Newark, but our luggage came on a different flight and was at a different terminal. Since our driver had been waiting for us for hours, we decided to have United send us our luggage and hopefully it will arrive today. We arrived home around 2:30 am and went right to bed.

It was the trip of a lifetime and we had so many adventures and first experiences. We will never forget Australia and New Zealand. It was a long trip…but so worth it. We did it all! See you for the next journey!

PS…Yesterday, our luggage arrived at Lehigh Valley International Airport and Allan and I went over and picked it up. YAY! And now…to do the laundry!!

Monet

My favorite in the collection

Auckland – Harbor Bridge – Bastion Point – Wintergarden

05/02/2024Irene

This is our last day on our month long trip through Australia and New Zealand. Tomorrow we fly home. Our hotel in Auckland is in the center of town and is quite lovely and the breakfast this morning was amazing! We’ve been very lucky that all of our hotels have been wonderful and the breakfasts, except for one hotel, have been excellent. But if truth be told, we do get some of the best rooms since we have traveled with Overseas Adventure Travel – Grand Circle so often.

We boarded our coach for a tour around the city, stopping first to see the Harbor Bridge. Before the bridge opened in 1959, the only way passenger vehicles could cross the harbor was by ferry which was a time consuming, expensive and thus became an infrequently made journey. Situated on the nation’s main artery (State Highway 1) more than a billion cars have travelled across the steel bridge since it was constructed.

As we traveled along, Catherine mentioned that prostitution in New Zealand is legal. There isn’t a red light district like in Amsterdam and there are no pimps. The ladies are called sex workers, they pay taxes, and usually work out of their homes.

We passed where New Zealand’s America’s Cup boat is being housed. There was a sneak peek offered to the public a few weeks ago, but for the most part, the design is a well kept secret until the race.

We passed Holy Trinity Cathedral where Sir Edmund Hillary was buried from. Sir Hillary was a mountaineer and an explorer and he and his Sherpa became the first climbers to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. He led an amazing life and Allan and I are members of the Sir Edmund Hillary club with Overseas Adventure Travel since we have travelled so often with them.

The next stop was to Bastion Point (you can google about its interesting history) and then on to Auckland Domain WinterGarden. The gardens were spectacular, with many gorgeous flowers that I have never seen. The display changes regularly within the glass houses, but the flowers blooming at this time were truly rare. One glass house is heated and shows lush tropical and heat-loving plants while the other house displays temperate plants changing with the seasons. There also is a fern area that is dense with different types of ferns and trees.

We went back to the hotel to spend an afternoon on our own before the Farewell Dinner tonight. Allan and I walked around since it was a lovely sunny day, after this morning’s sprinkle of rain.

At 5:30 we all took the ferry over to enjoy the Farewell Dinner. We had a lot of laughs and we were sorry that our time together is ending. You really get to know people very well, being with them every day for a month. It was a good group and we traveled well together.

We went back to the hotel and Catherine gave a recap of our time together. It’s amazing to realize all the wonderful adventures we had here in New Zealand. The country is beautiful with its volcanoes, glaciers, meadows, beaches, and of course the majestic mountains that were covered in snow.

Catherine gave each of us a little gift and a written award to go with it, highlighting something that we did that she remembered that she thought was great. Allan got shot glasses and his award read “The award for being able to say he actually fit in a hobbit’s house!” I received a lovely woven little bag and my award read “The award for being a wahine toa and making it through the nighttime tree walk!” Too funny! BTW… wahine toa means warrior woman. Yep…that’s me!!