Where New Zealand was all about the beautiful vistas, Singapore is spectacular for its architecture.  After traveling for 10.5 hours by plane we arrived in Singapore at almost 5 pm (10 pm in NZ), and were immediately drawn out into the evening streets.

One of our first encounters was a street Zumba class.

As night fell, the buildings began adding lights.  The Fullerton Hotel goes from just beautiful

To adding a 5 minute long video light showing featuring flora and fauna of Singapore.

The famous Merlion lights up.

And most spectacular of all, the Marina Bay Sands does both a light and water show.

The next 2 days we roamed  the city taking in sites including Indian temples in Little India:

And a mosque:

and temples in Chinatown:

Singapore is truly one of the most culturally,  ethnically, and religiously diverse countries I have ever visited, which also made for great eating!  The street food is amazing!

At night, more water and light shows, Christmas themed.

Another aspect of the city I loved is the street art.

 

And then it was time to move on to Thailand to meet the kids for Christmas!!!!

We spent our last couple of days in New Zealand in Auckland.  After all the beautiful places we had visited in the country, the city was less spectacular, but we needed the big international airport for our next leg.  We made the most of the day tooling around the city on the hop-on-hop off bus, taking in the sites.

And we checked out the Christmas dressings and window displays

This famous NZ department store did the entire nutcracker story.

And we took a ferry across to Devonport.

And so our visit to New Zealand has come to an end.

 

 

 

We arrived in Rotorua in the afternoon.  We immediately embarked on a hike through the redwood forest.  Redwoods were imported here from California over a hundred years ago.  They, like the pines from California, grow faster here, and are therefore a softer wood.  The pines are a huge export industry.  The redwoods, like California, are now for tourists.

We are walking an elevated path that is suspended from tree to tree, thus protecting them.

 

Those things hanging from the trees are light sculptures.  We came back at night for the light tour, which is also from the suspended path, very cool.  Pictures barely capture the experience.

 

The next morning we went to Te Puia, which is a park that houses both a geothermal valley and activities devoted to understanding Maori life, arts, and culture.

First the geothermal:  Pohutu Geyser, which is the largest in the Southern hemisphere.  We were lucky (and patient) enough to catch it erupting.

And mud pools aplenty.

 

Then we turned our attention to the Maoris.

The park is home to the school of Maori arts and crafts.  We were able to watch students learning how to carve stone, jade, and bone as well as weave all manner of clothing and accessories from flax.

Finally, after a relaxing late lunch, we headed to the hot spring pools to soak in the spring-fed mineral baths.

 

 

Napier is so far the cutest we have visited in NZ with respect to its architecture. We stayed in the Art Deco Masonic Hotel, which is where Queen Elizabeth stayed in 1954.

This is the view from the terrace off our bedroom.

In the morning we took an architectural tour with Christine, a spry 80-something-year-old who, after 24 years of giving these tours, retired after ours.

Napier suffered a devastating earthquake on Feb. 3, 1931 which caused fires that lasted for 2 days.  The town was burned to the ground, over 250 people died, and thousands were injured.  Because it was the depression, architects and construction teams were available to pour in from all over the world to help rebuild the city.  The style at the time was art deco, so that is how the new buildings were designed.  Over time, some of them were altered. but in the 1980s the town realized the gem that they had, and started restoring them to the original.  Now every year in February the town has a huge jazz era festival.  People come from all over in their roadsters, dressed in 30s style to celebrate the resilience of the town.  Christine shared some of the architectural marvels with us.

In the afternoon, we visited wineries.  I forgot to mention that while in Queenstown, we visited wineries of the Otago Valley.  There the specialty is Pinot Noir, of which they have some internationally award winning ones.  Napier is in the Hawkes Bay wine region, which has a more diverse offering of grape varietals.

 

The following morning was Saturday, which meant a farmers’ market in the town park.

 

While in Australia, we were lucky enough to have the Jakaranda trees in bloom.  Now almost a month later and much further south, we get to see them in bloom again!  The red one is called the Maori Christmas tree because of its bright red blooms in December.

On Wednesday we woke early and drove to Picton to catch the inter-islander for the 3 hour ferry ride across to the north island.

We arrived in Wellington in the early afternoon with enough time to take the cable car up to the top of the city.

View from the top.

We then meandered our way down through the botanical gardens.  Eric was on a mission to find the silver fern.  The silver fern is as much a symbol of New Zealand as the kiwi, used by both the national rugby team, the Blacks, and the military.

It has a shiny silver underside that reflects the moonlight, which the Maoris used to find their way through the bush at night.  To Māori, the elegant shape of the fronds stood for strength, stubborn resistance, and enduring power. To Pākehā (New Zealanders of non-Māori descent), the fern symbolized their sense of attachment to their homeland.

 

Found!

The gardens were magnificent.  We certainly picked the right time of year to visit.

 

On Monday we drove the 7 hours (and by we I mean Eric drove) from Franz Joseph to Nelson at the northern tip of the southern island.  We passed through some of the most gorgeous scenery yet with multiple stops along the way.  One such side adventure was to Punakaiki with its famous pancake rocks, so named because of the layering caused by the sediment formations.  The views were stunning.

 

 

Once in Nelson we checked in to our airbnb home, which was the cutest little cottage on a sheep farm.  This is the view from our porch.

The next morning we awoke refreshed and hiked to the top of the “center of New Zealand.”

We then visited the town’s Christ Church cathedral, which was having a Christmas tree competition amongst the local organizations.  So many creative ones.

Finally, in the afternoon we went to the Museum of Wearable Art and Classic Cars.  My pictures do not do justice to the weirdness of theses two creations side by side in a museum.

 

From Queenstown we made the 5 hour drive to Franz Joseph.  We made stops along the way for the many short walks to waterfalls, which are in abundance in NZ.

Eric is adding his contribution to the live art.

Once we arrived in Franz Joseph, we felt the immediate need to hike up to the glacier base.

 

It is hard to appreciate from these pictures, but it is stunning how much the glacier is receding, and how quickly!

The following day we decided to visit Fox Glacier.  The weather and clouds did not completely cooperate, but we were able to hike somewhat close to it.

We then hiked around Lake Matheson, which was stunningly beautiful.

The next morning, just as we were about to leave town, Franz Joseph glacier decided to show itself to us from amongst the clouds for a brief moment.

 

 

From Te Anau we travelled to Queenstown and were struck immediately by how much more packed with tourists it is.  We stayed in a really lovely place recommended by Jay and Phyllis.

We took the Gondola up to the top of the mountain for the views.

The peninsula seen here is a botanical garden which we walked around.

 

And a visit to the bird sanctuary.

The red crowned parakeet and the wood pigeon above are both endangered species, as are the kea and the kiwi.  We got to see a kiwi feeding, but it was in the dark, no photos, due to the nocturnal nature of the bird.  Many of the bird species in NZ are threatened with extinction due to the introduction of stouts, possums, and rats.  Turns out the only mammals indigenous to NZ are 2 species of bats and aquatic mammals.  All land mammals here now were brought by humans.  First rabbits and possums for fur trading, then stouts to control those populations.  Rats and mice from ships. The insect and plant populations are also suffering.  The NZ Dept. of Conservation is working hard to try and restore balance.  Very sad.

Walking around town we saw this nod to Christmas.

 

.What a few action packed days!  We arrived in Te Anau on Monday afternoon and met Adam, Nikki, and Nikki’s dad David for a pizza and pasta dinner.  Then after a good night’s sleep, we set out on a hike to Lake Marian.  It was a 3.5 hour 5.5 mile hike in and out with steep, uneven terrain.  I barely made it out.  But it was beautiful and fun, despite the rain the last half hour.  Unfortunately, due a camera malfunction, our pictures are few.

 

In the late afternoon the others left for Queenstown while Eric and I took an excursion across Lake Te Anau to the glow worm caves.  There photos were not allowed, but here is an image from the net.

Turns out glow worms are actually the larvae stage of an insect.  They make sticky webs like spiders to catch their prey.  Very spectacular to see

Today we woke up sore from yesterday’s climb.  Luckily a boat trip was on our agenda.  The almost 2 hour drive to Milford Sound was almost as stunning as the sound itself

 

The flowers are lupine, which are not indigenous to New Zealand.  They are now in bloom and are spectacularly scattered everywhere.  The locals consider them weeds.

Sea lions basking in the sun.

 

 

And the ride home

 

 

The bird is the Kea, which is a parrot that treats tourists the way pigeons treat New Yorkers: aggressively.  The tree is a fern tree very common to the rain forest of the fiord lands.

And so another exhausting but fun day ends.

 

Yesterday we climbed aboard the scenic tourist train for a ride up into the gorge of the Taieri River.  We spent 4 hours taking in the most amazing scenery.

Afterword we wandered into town just in time for the Santa parade!  So much fun to see all the children loving the event.

Now we are headed down to the fjords of the south island and meeting Adam and Nikki there.