Aotearoa ~ Land of the long white cloud

On my recent trip to New Zealand I did see long white clouds,  these are hovering over the iconic volcanic Rangitoto Island.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aotearoa

I also saw long white mountain ranges (the Southern Alps).

I saw city skylines ~ Auckland

and experienced awful rush hour traffic over the harbour bridge

Travelled on hilly roads with loads of native bush,

Where the on coming traffic is a bit intimidating.

past lush green pastures

 some cows and gray clouds

and a few early spring lambs

But the one thing I saw the most of .....was rain!! which gave everyone a good reason to say "Bugger".

Turtle Egg Watch

 My trip to New Zealand is over and I have been home for a week already....the week was busy catching up, the usual paper work, photo sorting, washing and putting away the winter gear, 2 fun lunches, a bit of food shopping, a little boating, and finding out in greater detail all that went on while I was gone...etc...

Before getting back the guys had been on turtle watch for a week, as the eggs were due for hatching around Aug 12th. There is no sign of life from the nest and now the guys are happy to let me worry about being on watch. James does do the first thing glance in the direction of the nest on his way to the bus stop on his way to school, but I'm the one popping out there a couple of times a day to check.  The chicken wire net I placed over the nest is still holding up, so if any turtles do hatch, they will be held there for us to find. I will be let you know of any news.

Posts on New Zealand will be coming soon. 

A lovely surprise was delivered on Friday, a lovely box of macarons from Sucre in New Orleans. Given to me by Leslie, who has recently returned from a trip to Paris....she needed a Paris fix  and guessed correctly that I did too!. I savour each and every bite. Just in case you are wondering, I do offer them to the guys in the house, but lucky me - there are no takers.

For the Paris fix we went browsing at a lovely French home accent and furniture shop

The shop is an old warehouse, 3 or 4 floors of gorgeous stuff,  the very French front entrance garden is even gorgeous!

Of course there had to be an Eiffel Tower.