If It Was Today...

Toronto

Posted on May 21, 2026 by If It Was Today

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.

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.

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.

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.

Across the street from the AGO I spotted this unusual building.

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.

CN Tower, with the Canadian flag in the picture

Then it was time for our train ride home.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada, Photography, Toronto, Travel | 3 Comments

Home

Posted on May 16, 2026 by If It Was Today

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.

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.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Canada, Home, Photography | 7 Comments

Renewing Vows

Posted on March 8, 2026 by If It Was Today

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.

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.

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).

Okay, maybe not every year, but many years.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Beaches, New Zealand, Paua Shells, Photography, Travel, Vows | 5 Comments

The Last Supper

Posted on March 8, 2026 by If It Was Today

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.

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.

Okay, now I’m definitely done for today!

Posted in Travel | Tagged Auckland, Neapolitan pizza, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 6 Comments

Homeward Bound

Posted on March 8, 2026 by If It Was Today

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.

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.

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???

Posted in Travel | Tagged Auckland, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Auckland Museum

Posted on March 7, 2026 by If It Was Today

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.

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.

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.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Auckland, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 4 Comments

Auckland

Posted on March 6, 2026 by If It Was Today

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.

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?

Tomorrow is forecast to be a lovely sunny day with temperatures around 24C. Perfect for more walking in the parks around Auckland.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Auckland, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Last Stop

Posted on March 5, 2026 by If It Was Today

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Auckland, New Zealand, Photography, Travel, Waipu Scottish Migration Museum, Whangarei | 2 Comments

Warning: Botanic Garden

Posted on March 3, 2026 by If It Was Today

We all know what that means. Lots of pictures…

The Whangarei Quarry Gardens are, as you might expect, in an abandoned quarry. This is a surprisingly good place for a botanic garden, so it has been done in other places as well. Butchart Gardens near Victoria BC, Canada, is similar. The main difference is that Whangarei has a collection of tropical plants that might struggle to survive, much less thrive, even in BC’s relatively mild climate. After lunch, seated outdoors of course, we headed into the garden and were almost immediately greeted by a display of air plants and succulents.

We included this next shot, because this is a flower that we can only get in flower shops at home, as part of flower arrangements. It’s lovely to see it growing outside and looking so healthy.

I included this next one because it looks so vibrant.

Several small streams flow into the quarry from the surrounding hills, creating waterfalls like this one.

The Quarry Gardens have numerous small side paths for you to explore. with interesting plants and scenery. Some of those also have smaller waterfalls.

When the gardens were started, the volunteers needed to first clear out the rubbish in the bottom of the abandoned quarry. Then they built a concrete dam to create a small, but deep, lake for native fish and to store water for the gardens.

This created opportunities for small streams, bridges, paths, and more waterfalls.

Bridge over small stream, with waterfall

More lovely flowers. I couldn’t resist.

We included these next shots to give you a sense of scale. These are plants that only grow as small houseplants at home. Here, they are much larger.

It is typical of New Zealand to commission art installations by local artists, and the Quarry Gardens is no exception. Can you spot the waterfall through the center of this piece? If you look at the background, you should also be able to see evidence that this was originally a quarry.

The Quarry Gardens was built and maintained by volunteers. There is no entry fee, though donations are encouraged. In addition to the plants, the volunteers have created numerous paths to explore, such as this one.

These paths have similar types of plants, creating zones to explore. Here are a few from one of the final ones we saw.

This was a very interesting shrub.

And here is a persimmon tree covered with fruit.

I’ll close with this flower that looks like a space alien, or perhaps an April Fool’s joke.

The Quarry Gardens turned out to be an unexpected gem within the city. It was beautiful, informative, and a pleasant afternoon walk. If we return to this area we will definitely visit it again.

Tomorrow we head south to Auckland and the last few days of our visit.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Botanic Garden, New Zealand, Photography, Quarry Gardens, Travel, Whangarei | Leave a comment

Whangarei

Posted on March 3, 2026 by If It Was Today

Another slow start today. The hosts at this B&B join us at the breakfast table. Francis, in particular, has had a rather eclectic career and has an extensive collection of interesting stories. It makes for a leisurely breakfast.

After breakfast, we set out to find a local store that sold Maori crafts, only to discover that it only sold items online – there wasn’t an in-person store. More research will be required in the future, but no worries. We headed to the Whangarei town basin. We heard it had the Hundertwasser Museum, a vibrant arts scene, and a walking trail along the river. We also wanted to find lunch somewhere in there as well. We found it all.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser spent the last few decades of his life in New Zealand, and this museum and adjoining arts center celebrates this. His style is distinct, but you could see a certain similarity with Gaudi.

Just outside the museum, along the river, we found this rather interesting structure that incorporates the same style. See if you can find me in the picture.

Next, we saw the Canopy Bridge, a decommissioned car bridge that has been covered with a canopy and is used for artisan markets and other local events.

The art works are hidden everywhere. This painting is only visible from the bridge.

The adjoining artisan center has several shops specializing in different arts. In one, we saw someone using a spinning wheel to make yarn. In the same shop, there was a large loom with a nearly completed work. To the lower left of the tapestry you can see the picture they are using as the model for the piece. If you’re looking for a challenge Stu, I think I’ve found it!

Next door, a glass blower was at work.

Then it was time for the river walk. It has pieces of art and information panels at regular intervals. This next piece of art is called Waka and the Wave. It is a joint collaboration between two artist, one Maori and one of European descent. It symbolizes two cultures coming together, merging, learning from each other, and moving forward. If you want the full story, you’ll need to visit.

Here is a closer look at the Waka (Maori boat) emerging from the wave.

Further along, we crossed this bridge. The white pieces symbolize Maori fish hooks, but they are also functional. The bridge raises to allow ships to pass through, and the white pieces act as a counterweight. I love how art and function can combine.