At the very Southern tip of the North Island
These are the woods where they filmed the Hobbits running from the Ring Wraiths
On Mount Victoria
The building in lower right (curved room, parking lot in front, on water) is Museum Te Papa where the conference is being held.
Barb, in gale-force winds, in from of the museum and Mt. Victoria
Here's where we were, looking down on Wellington
In grocery store in Wellington
New Zealand's Parliament Building
Margaret, our ACE co-chair
Alex, our ACSW co-chair
Listening to Barb in the workshop
Barb working with teachers in the workshop
The “Smarties” Sculpture
The Buildings in Wellington are *SO* interesting!
Bank of New Zealand building, now a Burger King
Walking under the tripod from the Indian Restaurant to the Dessert Place
Simon carries a phone with him everywhere (it's not connected to anything)
Barb in front of our workshop building, near Parliament and the Green Belt forest behind
View from Te Papa
The only Colossal Squid on display anywhere
Call to Powhiri
Walking into the Powhiri
The Te Papa Meeting Room
Entrance gate into Meeting Room
Exhibits in Te Papa
The treaty between the Queen and the Maori
We have these amazing views walking “to work” (from our hotel to the Te Papa museum)
Going around table: Cary Laxer (at left), Judy Sheard, Tony Clear, Mats, Jan, Dida, Simon, Margaret, Michael, and Barb
Notice the crew in lower right
Te Papa from the outside
Another view from Te Papa
Hey! That's me!
“I'm a little teapot!”
Touchdown! (Barb took LOTS of pictures of my talk!)
“Turing Machine” at Canterbury -- it flips its own bit switches
Tim and Barb in one of Christchurch's gardens
Going for a bush walk in Christchurch
Christchurch's gardens are very English
Mona Vale
150+ year old tree in Christchurch's botanical garden.
Look, Jenny! Ducks and a baby duck!
A whole regatta of ducks!
Off to Akoroa!
From the Sign of the Kiwi
Wow! This is the crater of a volcano on Banks Peninsula
Yup, that's where we drove next
Hanging out before we went on
This is the rim of the crater
Coming into Akaroa Harbor, another volcano crater
Barb and Tim, with a few cows listening in.
Akaroa is beautiful
Going on a bush wal
The views in Akaroa are all like postcards
About to leave on our dolphin and seal cruise
A Maori community on Akaroa harbor
The Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Harbor
They call this “The Elephant”
A massive cave in Akaroa Harbor
I think he's keeping an eye on us
Dolphin's! Hector's Dolphins, the rarest dolphins in the world
Fur Seal babies!
Mom seal checking up on the babies
This one just performed for us
Once we saw them, we realized that there were TONS of them. They just blended in with the rocks.
More dolphins on the way back
Barb and Tim watching for dolphins
On the way to the Penguin Breeding Grounds!
There are WAY more sheep than people in New Zealand!
The Road to Flea Bay
Sheep getting out of our way on the road
Overlooking Akaroa Harbor
A sick baby white-flippered blue penguin
Gimpie, the spoiled sheep
Hey! Who lifted up our lid?!?
Flea Bay
A nest of penguins, including adults
Barb as twilight falls at Flea Bay
Wow. Flea Bay at sunset.
And now the COWS won't get off the road!
Bunches of cows now!
Sunset over Akaroa
From our hotel in Christchurch
The little silver Mitsubishi Colt that we drove for 650 km in two days!
Right -- this is what I'm driving on MY FIRST DAY on the left side of the road!
Barb at Castle Rock
Climbing up to the first cave
Quite a drop down from the path
Barb on top of Castle Rock (well, one of them)
Our first view of snow-topped mountains
A kea, a wild parrot, at Arthur's Pass
Punchbowl Falls
Hiking up to Punchbowl Falls
Mostly uphill, steeply
Cool views
Up-close to the Falls
Mark and Barb at Punchbowl Falls
View of Akoroa harbor
Baby seals playing in the pond
Momma shows up
Baby penguin eating
Gimpie wants food!
Penguin watching us
There were a dozen one-lane bridges along Arthur's Pass, more on the way to the glaciers. Scary!
The West Coast is all forest, like rain forest or jungle
Getting closer to the glaciers
A river of glacier run-off
That's Barb on the left, next to the pilot
Mt Cook on Left, Mt Tasman on Right
Snow pack is 40 meters deep
Glaciers!
Glacier on left
This is where they filmed the Lord of the Rings “Lighting of the Fires” scene
I think this is the Fox glacier
Glaciers aren't clean
Lake Pukaki that Franz Joseph feeds into
Think about how big these are -- the snow is 40 meters deep. These cracks can swallow a car
Note the red house, to get a sense of size
Closeup of glacier
Barb, thrilled with her helicopter ride
Back through the jungle to Hokitika where we had booked a room
We stopped in HariHari for dinner at a totally English pub
This is “Whitebait” -- New Zealand version of smelt, made into patties
Couldn't you imagine Jurassic Park here?
Tasman Sea, from our hotel
See the brighter dots? Those are glow-worms (best shot I could get of them), carnivorous larvae
Morning in Hokitika
Movie of the glacier
You can imagine the torches of Rohan here.
Snow field
How the same mountain is forested and snow-capped
The beach at Hokitika
Watch for dolphins at top of frame
Giant Eels. Eww.
Yes, that's Barbara feeding giant eels!
There was a waterfall there, so they had to divert it.
Below the viaduct
We stopped by the Antartic Center, but it was too much money and we had too little time.
More giant eels
Barb feeding the gross giant eels.
Northern tip of the Southern Island
Civic Center Wellington. Notice the cool floating ball.
The new and old parliament buildings, on the way back from church.
Yes we went to Martinborough to visit New Zealand vineyards
The Martinborough Hotel looks like a Wild West hotel/saloon
The view of Wellington from the top of the cable car
At the Wellington Botanical Gardens
New Zealand has LOTS of ferns. I like ferns.
Installation art at the Botanical Center
I beg your pardon, I never promised you...
Massive begonias!
Some of these horses were under Riders of Rohan in “Lord of the Rings”!
Barb's tour guide was an extra on LOTR, as a Rider of Rohan!
The beach near where Barb went riding
This is the Hutt River, used as the River of Anduin in LOTR
This is the river at Rivendell
Here's the spot where Rivendell was built -- and torn down.
This is the exact spot where the bedroom was where Frodo recovered
There's lawn in that tree!
Barb, wandering where Rivendell was
The Silver Fern, used often to represent New Zealand
Barb didn't like the swinging bridge much
Wandering the coast on a rainy day in Wellington
Check out the size of the New Zeland earthworm!
Barbara pushed that man off! I saw it!
Around Te Papa are plants from around New Zealand in a pretend rain forest (complete with cave)
Still in the Te Papa artificial rain forest
This is one of the world's oldest rocks, around 500 million years old
Complete with pretend waterfall!
Mac's Brewery, right next to Te Papa, had the coolest beer labels
Barb heading out to kayak
Wellington from the water
Self-portrait of kayakers
Lovely Barbara kayaking
Barb showing how far out we went -- all the way to the point of the Harbor
Wandering around Te Papa
We took the walk back to Wellington the long way, and saw some new beautiful views.
Our taxi was a cool electric car to Wellington Airport. Off to Christchurch on the South Island!
