We were pleased to be invited to visit Wendy and Stu’s cottage this weekend. We arrived late Friday afternoon, and after getting settled, we headed down to the dock for the “hour of happiness”.
The hour-of-happiness on the dock
It had been cloudy earlier in the day, but as we enjoyed our beverages, things started to clear. As we relaxed on the dock, we were treated to stunning sunset views.
We spotted all kinds of interesting cloud shapes – everything from a giant axe, to a fire breathing dragon, and finally a flying goose.
Flying goose
The lake is on the Canadian Shield, so the landscape is rugged with regular outcroppings of granite.
Granite
Every year, Wendy uses one of the old tree stumps as a flower pot.
Organic flower pot
It has been a wet year, so there were a number of very interesting mushrooms in the woods.
MushroomsMore mushrooms
Here is the cottage.
The cottage
There is also a screened-in gazebo with a gas fireplace.
The gazebo
The end of the dock shows the directions, for those who can’t figure out directions from looking at the sun.
For the directionally-impaired
On Saturday, we headed into Bancroft, which is the nearest town. It has a local microbrewery, with very tasty ales.
Bancroft Brewery – flight of local beers
And here is the obligatory group photo.
Group photo
We’re getting close to travel season, so before too long I’ll be posting more often.
We’re trying to include some local-ish trips in our travels. You know, change things up a bit! This year I started following the Munk Debates, and we decided to attend this year’s spring debate in Toronto in person. We made it into a mini vacation and took the train rather than drive. No high-speed trains here (yet … fingers crossed) but we still enjoy traveling by train whenever we can. We certainly aren’t about to subject ourselves to downtown Toronto traffic if we can possibly avoid it.
Via Rail to Toronto
The debate was interesting, and well worth the trip. The essence of the question was, should America continue trying to act as the world’s policeman, or would the world (and the U.S.) be better off if it would mind it’s own business and stop throwing it’s weight around. I’m paraphrasing here, but you probably get the idea. Both sides of the debate made legitimate and interesting points. But occasionally, both sides were completely clueless. Neither side seemed to realize the world has moved on, and returning to the old status quo isn’t one of the options on the table. But what do I know? These are the experts…
But that isn’t what this blog is about. It’s a travel blog, and this was a chance for us to get away for a few days. Spring is further along in Toronto than it is in Ottawa, and the trees are coming into bloom.
Tree in bloom
We stayed in Toronto for two nights. We had a lovely visit with Anne and Sharon, but with two days in the city, we still had time to kill. The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) had an exhibit of photographs by Paul McCartney that Jan was interested in seeing. These were taken in 1963-64, just as The Beatles were rising to fame, so they provide a fascinating snapshot in time. Apparently he misplaced the negatives for decades, and only recently rediscovered them. They are well worth a look if you have the chance.
Our hotel was a half hour walk from the AGO so we headed over. There was an interesting sculpture outside the gallery called the Couch Monster, apparently inspired by the story of Dumbo the Elephant. Several couches were “sacrificed” to create the early mock-ups of the sculpture. I quite like it.
Art Gallery of OntarioCouch Monster
The price for a season pass was only a few dollars more than the price of a single ticket, so we opted for the pass. That meant we could have multiple visits, so before catching our train home today, we went back for a second visit. These caught my eye.
From the Art Gallery of Ontario
Across the street from the AGO I spotted this unusual building.
Mersivity
I was curious. Of course I was curious. Turns out it is a UofT student led initiative exploring eXtended Reality (XR) called … wait for it … Mersivity. Cool idea … I think. Certainly a cool piece of art. If you are a mathematician, that is.
On our way to catch the train I had to stop for this iconic Toronto image. Looks a lot like Auckland … or Seattle … or Las Vegas, now that I think of it. But this one is Toronto.
Typically, I only post when we’re traveling. This is a travel blog. But sometimes I make an exception. I looked out our back door tonight as the sun was setting and saw this.
Home
Twenty minutes earlier it looked rather blah. Twenty minutes later it was dark. Timing is everything.
This is just the beginning of the prime season here. I’m looking forward to enjoying the summer.
I’m writing this from the Auckland airport, waiting for our flight back to Canada. Our trip to New Zealand has come to an end. We had an amazing time and are sad to be leaving. We love home, but we’re still going to miss New Zealand. Enough said.
While we were touring New Zealand, Jan came across a lovely pāua shell ring. She has been looking for something like this for some time, so she immediately bought it.
Pāua shell ring
I loved it too, so I bought one of my own, and then we had a thought. We’ve toyed with renewing our vows for a while now, so we figured “what better time”. We put on our new rings, and headed for the nearest beach.
Vows on the beach
And there, on a New Zealand beach, with no one around but the two of us, we renewed our vows. We promised to return to New Zealand every winter, so long as we both shall live (or at least as long as we can both afford it).
I’ve already posted for today, so I wasn’t planning anything more. But then we went to dinner and … one of the pizzas was called the Zola. We immediately thought of someone (you know who you are) and had to give it a go. It was delicious.
Zola pizza
We ate early tonight so the sun was still setting when we got back to the hotel. Our room faces east, but the sun was still illuminating the city.
We had planned to visit the Auckland Art Gallery today, but then we realized we were going to spend all of tomorrow inside – airports first, and then the plane. It might be a better idea to get some fresh air today. So that’s what we did. Nothing exciting – just walking around the city in shortsleeved shirts. It was lovely.
Sunrise from our balcony
Oh yeah, we also packed our bags. After six weeks of travel, and several new items of merino wool clothing, it took a while to pack. But we’re all done now and having a quiet drink before walking over to dinner. We ate outside last night. It was “cold” enough that they lit the heaters. We were plenty warm. And the food was great too.
Dinner last night
We’re all checked in for our flight tomorrow and ready to go. Our incoming plane is on the ground in Vancouver, getting ready to depart for Auckland in two and a half hours. Then it will take us back to the cold and snow.
We had a great time in New Zealand. We’ve been told more than once that there are a lot of Canadians visiting here this year. Why could that possibly be???
The full name of this museum is the Auckland War Memorial Museum. It’s a misleading name. One floor of the museum is named War and Remembrance, but the other two floors cover a wide variety of topics related to Auckland. Local history, Maori culture and farming practices, geology, and natural history. It even has a section dealing with volcanoes, given that Auckland sits on an active volcanic zone. The display notes that it isn’t a question of “if” a volcano will erupt in Auckland, but rather a question of “when”. Comforting thought. The museum is well worth a visit.
Auckland Museum, seen from our hotel
We had two goals for the day. Visit the museum, but also enjoy a walk through a park. If you look at this picture, it’s clear that most of the area between our hotel and the museum is trees. So walking to the museum satisfied both of our objectives. This shows the path through the large park surrounding the museum.
The walk to the museum
I’ll close with a bit of street art near our hotel. I think it provides good advice for the times we are living through.
We’ve been traveling for nearly six weeks now. We’ve covered a lot of ground and seen many wonderful things. If I’m being honest, I have to admit we’re starting to run out of steam. I say all this to provide context for our day. We did … very little. We did manage to get out walking, through the city and through Albert Park. It was just what we needed.
I love the fact that flowering plants and trees are everywhere we walk.
Alstroemeria and bumble bee
I probably showed a picture of this tree the first time we visited New Zealand three years ago, but I still think it looks cool, so I’m showing it again. If you look closely you can see someone taking a nap on a branch in the tree. Can you find them?
Nap time
Tomorrow is forecast to be a lovely sunny day with temperatures around 24C. Perfect for more walking in the parks around Auckland.
Our last stop before heading home … to the snow 😦 is a few days in Auckland.
We’ve been cooking in our apartments for the past week, so last night we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner in Whangarei at The Quay. We ate outdoors on the patio, because we could.
Dinner at The Quay
I’m not one for posting pictures of our meals, but these were particularly tasty dishes, and also artistically arranged. And I didn’t have any pictures of flowers, so this will have to do.
Dinner at The Quay
After dinner we needed to work off some of the calories, so we went for a stroll along the river as the moon was rising. The lunar eclipse was two nights ago (quite impressive, btw) so it’s still nearly a full moon. I took this picture as it was rising.
Moonrise across the river
I showed a picture of the bridge in Whangarei the other day, but when it is lit up at night, it is even more impressive.
Te Matau A Pohe bridge
On our walk we came across this on the wall of one of the stores. It looks like a painting, but it is made of carved pieces of wood on the wall. Very stunning, especially at night with the shadows.
Mural
Today, after another entertaining breakfast, we headed south. We were planning to visit the Scottish Migration Museum in Waipu, a town that was settled by colonists from Nova Scotia in Canada. We had no idea. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit the museum, but while chatting in the gift shop we discovered shared connections through genealogy research. Small world. Maybe next time. Then it was onward to Auckland where we checked into the hotel and I returned the rental car. No more driving – just walking around the city for the next three days.
Auckland views
As I write this, we’re pondering our options for the next few days. I’m enjoying the view from our room, and feeling that we may just take it easy.
If It Was Today... 