Our hotel in Coromandel town had stunning views with a wonderful balcony, but one thing it didn’t have was air conditioning. It has been hot, so we had to sleep with the patio door wide open to cool down. As dawn approached, Jan got up to close the drapes and was treated to a perfect view of sunrise. She snapped this picture … and then went back to bed (like any sensible person would).

We fly home tomorrow so we’re staying the night at a hotel at Auckland airport. The drive from Coromandel was only 2 1/2 hours, so once again we had time to kill. The plan was to look for interesting places to stop along the way, but the weather didn’t cooperate (it was one of the very few cloudy days we’ve seen) and we didn’t find anything that appealed all that much anyway. And then Jan spotted the Auckland Botanic Garden near the airport. We decided to check it out, at the very least for lunch. In our second example of serendipity for the day, the Auckland Botanic Garden has a temporary sculpture exhibit every second year. The exhibit was technically over, but only a few of the sculptures had been removed, so we were treated to another treasure hunt.

This acorn sculpture will appeal to one of our friends in particular.

The next sculpture honors the huia, which was hunted to extinction because its beak was used in jewelry.

This next piece is called Patchwork of Possibilities and embraces related themes of repurposing materials, quilting, and the rejuvenating abilities of Mother Nature.

Jan particularly liked the next sculpture. According to the description, it “encapsulates the concept of handing to our young those fundamental values that become the building blocks of the world around us”. In its raw form, the stone in this sculpture is covered in a brown rusty rind, which you can see on the wrist of the young hand, perhaps symbolizing the raw potential of youth. It turns out that Jan wasn’t the only one who liked it – the Friends of the Auckland Botanic Garden purchased it to become part of the Gardens’ permanent sculpture collection.

The Gardens also have many permanent sculptures, such as this one. Jan decided to have a chat.

Of course, being a Botanic Garden, you are now going to be treated to pictures of plants. I’ll start with this bush. For perspective, this was nearly two meters high and 3-4 meters wide, but it created a perfect expanse of leaves that I think would make an excellent inspiration for a fabric design. It appealed to me…

The butterflies were enjoying the flowers, and we were enjoying watching the butterflies.

I also spotted a bee on one of the flowers, and just as I took the picture the bee took flight. You can see the bee is covered in pollen.

I’ve been trying for a month to get good pictures of the New Zealand fern as it opens, and I finally got one I like.

We also spotted birds, This is a pukeko, which sometimes mistaken for the takahe.

Then it was time for lunch and the drive to our hotel. I’d honestly forgotten how much I hate driving in heavy city traffic. Most of New Zealand has narrow winding roads, but they usually don’t have all that much traffic. I like that. A lot.

We’re in our airport hotel as I write this. I’ve checked in for our flight tomorrow. Part of me will be glad to be home, but a bigger part will miss our time in New Zealand. We’re already looking forward to a return visit – next year?