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I uploaded what I could while in New Zealand. When we travel abroad we rely on Wifi, don’t use the phone unless we absolutely have to. Certainly don’t use data. Unlike other people who sat on the bus on their phones. So now I can share more pictures easily. I should have named this post ‘Snow’.

We stayed at this lovely 1930’s hotel. Chateau Tongariro at the ski resort in the North Island. It is summer and there was a lot of snow on the mountains. This makes perfect sense, NZ is very far south, the mountains are high, there is snow on the peaks all the time.

Some interior views. Although this hotel was built in the middle of the Art Deco period, the interior has a lot of older elements to it. Which isn’t surprising, very few building are purely one style.

At this point our group was 7 people. Later more people joined in. Here we are enjoying a lovely dinner together. To be honest, this only happened when there was no choice of places to eat. People segregated out into groups. Group dynamics on a tour like this are very interesting. We got along, but I’ve learned, it is a very temporary friendship. You make do.

Another interesting thing I learned on this trip. All of us had iPhones, so we shared pictures via airdrop. A great thing, because sometimes someone else got a great picture, it was easy to share.

Here we are at the bottom of the ski resort. The plan was to go up the ski left. I’m thrilled to have brought my rain boots. I had a wool hat, but it was in the suitcase. Joel just bought those gloves, I didn’t have any at the time. Here we are posting on an old chair lift.

Joel with our guide Andrew. Thank God this is as far as we got. The Chair lift wasn’t running, too cloudy. I’m grateful, I can go up chairlifts, but they are meant to be one way. You ski down, I have gone down chairlifts and it is freaky and scary. My fear of heights kicks in big time. So I wasn’t sorry to miss out on that experience. We went for a lovely hike instead.

In the morning we woke up to this view – we could actually see the snow on the mountain. It was lovely.

With a corner of the hotel. On our travels we tended to spend one night in a hotel and then move on to the next. Not easy living out of a suitcase and moving every day. But there is so much area to cover and although I didn’t see ‘all’ of NZ, I saw a lot.

We drove around this range of mountains, by mid morning, the haze had lifted and there was a gorgeous snow peak mountain, with unreal green in the foreground as well as sheep!!! I haven’t touched up the photo, there is a reason so many films want to use NZ as a location. It is stunningly beautiful.

Look! Off in the distance, Mt Cook, the tallest peak in NZ. We were so fortunate to get such a beautiful clear view.

This was the view from our hotel room. Often people get here and never see the mountain. This happened to us years ago in Costa Rica, we never saw the Arenal Volcano. There is a reason why this mountain range is called the southern Alps. It really is like the alps, although to be honest, many things are different.

In the morning, we couldn’t see the mountain, the opposite of what happened at Tongariro.

As we drove away it began to clear a little.

At Franz Josef Glacier we initially saw nothing.

For a few seconds the next morning, this snuck through. We were supposed to take a helicopter ride, but those low clouds made it a no go, so we took a walk to see the glacier instead.

There it is, off in the distance. It has receded a lot in the last few years. It is one of the few in a temperate rain forest. Funny thing is, our guide was talking about how the road gets washed out all the time and soon they may just close that part of the country. Other people said – no way, they’ll figure it out. But if nature decides that this glaciers’ time is up, people might not want to come to this part of NZ. It is wet, grey dreary and full of awful sand flies.

Joel and the ranger, warning not to cross the ropes. Yeah, the ranger is just a cutout, still a cute image.

Next, something other than snow.

Leah

Many towns in New Zealand have a large statue that represents the town. I’m sorry to say I couldn’t get pictures of many of them, whizzing by in a bus. So when I saw this fish, I snapped a picture

I can’t remember the names of most of these towns, this one was on a lake. Trout fishing is the reason this became a big vacation spot.

A few days latter I saw this fish in Wellington. Just street art. So I started looking for fish.

In Eason I saw this fish on the wall of a community center.

As well as these door handles snapped like a fish.

So now I’m on a mission to find fish

Like this wall decoration in a wonderful restaurant,

Or these fish climbing a wall at one of the hotels we stayed in.

What is New Zealand without sheep?

Tomorrow we visit a sheep station, so I’m sure I’ll have more pictures.

People are raising more and more cows. The dairy industry

We had a chance to see the cows being milked.

it is actually quite the production line.

Leah

I rode 16 miles on a bike! An electric bike, which made it possible. Fighting Wellington winds and hills needs assistance.

On the wharf

Here we are, by the bay

The blown away Wellington sign, right by Weta studios. Where NZ films happen. Lord of the Ri gs of course.

Rode up a hill to get this view. Riding down was harder.

There is a lot of Art Deco, clearly NZ was in a boom growth period in the 30s.

I miss this store in LA! Nice to see it on home turf.

Same layout, much bigger store.

A small piece of fabric was bought.

Had to take the cable car, built around the same time as Angels Flight.

With the same incline. This one is much bigger.

on our way down the hill it started pouring We went through told cemetery and found the old Jewish section.

Leah

Not easy to upload pictures and posts. I only use hotel WiFi, which can be very slow.

There is so much water here.

Which makes for a lot of green.

Not all green is grass. Geothermal activity. It really is this green, no filter.

A lovely walk to a waterfall. We ended up top as well.

even snow. We stayed at a lovely Chalet under this mountain

On an old ski lift. Was too cloudy to actually go the top, which is probably just as well.

Split rock in Abel Tasman park.

A little windy atop this boat, but still a lovely sunny day. We went kayaking on the pacific. Cold! Saw a blue penguin in the water swimming near by. Sorry, unlike other kayakers, no way I’d take a camera with me.

Sunrise from our hotel. First time I’ve seen the sun rise over the Pacific. I’m always on the other side.

Leah

What an incredible country. Gorgeous!

Our second day, we left Auckland and started seeing beautiful countryside. We passed a large Christmas Tree made out of granny squares. The problem with a tour, is that you can see something amazing, and the bus won’t stop. This happened a few times, I just wish I had a picture of that tree.

I crossed the suspension bridge! Without any problems, this one was pretty sturdy.

We were visiting an old gold mine.

How quickly nature reclaims what man has built, and no longer maintains, like the railroad.

Enter it the mine, this section was short, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Next one was pitch dark, needed flashlights.

Just look at the country side. Amazing.

This is what a modern day gold mine looks like today.

Along the fence is a memorial to NZ soldiers who died in WWI. There are memorials around the country to these fallen. NZ also participated in WWII, but really hadn’t experienced war since. Not of it on their own soil.

Here is a war memorial in Rotorua, this is to a local boy who fought valiantly and died in South Africa, in the Boer war in the 19 c

This Chinese tourist didn’t care about any of that. It is a lovely statue, a nice place to take a picture. Her friend took her picture, as did I, it is a lovely image with her red coat flowing.

Leah

We are blessed to be able to travel. There were those years, raising a family with no money. But hard work and patience means that now we are enjoying the fruit of our labor.

I only use WiFi at the hotels, needless to say, it’s pretty weak so uploading pictures on this platform isn’t happening.

I am sharing on Instagram, for some reason it’s easy to upload on that platform. I’m Leahkab, there.

Ah! Here we go! The sky needle in Auckland.

The postcard image of Auckland. We spent one day here. Meh, the biggest city in NZ. All of NZ was created by volcanoes, so a lot of hills and mountains. Also, a lot of water.

To my eyes, this is incredible. Outside of the cities this country is absolutely gorgeous.

So I’ll share a little here and then when I get home in 2020, I’ll share more of the amazing sites.
The group we are with is 7 people at the moment. Very friendly, 4 of us from CA, and three from Britain. Funny, two single men who happen to live a few villages apart in the Cotswolds.
It really is a very small world.

Leah

I love the idea of a wreath. I even have one for Hanukkah. It is quite the festive shape. Once again, this one is invisible at night. So it’s nice that some people decorate for both day and night.

I’ve shared this yellow gate before. Look how festive it is with the bow.

I had to zoom in on this bow, all of this sharing decorations and creativity makes me so happy. It certainly brightens up the shortest darkest days of the year.

Nature gets in on the game. This isn’t Holly, I have no idea what it is. A tree of some sort, with deep green leaves and bright red berries.

Viewed from another angle.

We get the best of fall colors in December. A number of trees go from green to yellow, through orange and maybe red. It’s no New England, but I love it anyway.

Bright yellow against a dark green backdrop.

Golden yellow. We do have trees where the leaves simply turn brown and fall off, no need to take pictures of those. And then we have our evergreens. Many have needles, but in this climate. Some do have broader leaves, but it doesn’t get cold enough for them to freeze. So the leaves remain.

Not a decoration at all, but this tableaux caught my attention. I do like the straws, someone is still handing out straws.

In my own garden, roses still bloom, under some of my owls.

I’m still getting red roses.

Yellow, the lemons are ripening. It will soon be time to make another batch of marmalade!

Leah

At night this twinkes and sparkles, but you can’t really see what it is except for lights. So I took out my camera and took pictures of the decorations during daylight. Some like this are very cute. Others are invisible in the day, at night they are a glow with light and color.

Here is one that might not be seen well at night. I’m sure the candy canes and the lights on the tree are all visible. But this adorable mail-box and elf, maybe not so much. I love this mail box.

I was standing taking pictures of this snow man. A girl rode by on her bike. How beautiful she said. It must be even better at night all lit up. I agreed, then she asked me if I had seen ‘those lights up in Pasadena’. I think she meant Descanso Gardens. Indeed I had, and I told her it was well worth a visit. Well, maybe if they had bike paths, she and her mom would go. Sorry, no bike paths, also, it is nighttime, it is very dark on the paths. A lot of people walking around, just go there without your bike. Clearly this girl (high-school is my guess) loves her bike. I told her, it’s worth it, get off the bike and walk. I must say what I did enjoy about the exchange is that two strangers on the street were talking. And despite the myth of no one walking, biking or talking in LA, we were doing all three. I contend, if you are open, welcoming and kind, it’s amazing how many people you will interact with.

Many people have inflatables. Most are on a timer and are deflated during daylight hours. Glad to see this Grinch is up looking grinchy.

Then there are the large ornaments in the trees. I truly adore these, oversized and wonderful. It is true that many trees do not lose their leaves around here, even they look better with ornaments.

Obligatory self portrait in a silver ball.

This one would work well for Hanukkah, the blue theme.

I adore this one, red and white, a great combination. Well, it’s really silver, but…

Here you go! Red white and blue.

An even better example of red, white and blue.

More soon.

Leah

The grandkids keep growing!

Aytan loves his frozen yogurt.

Unfortunately I keep forgetting to get pictures of Shira. She is growing so big.

Four and a half months ago we had this picture.

And now we have this. Eyal still loves to hold his sister, but ‘heavy, too heavy!’ So he needs some help.

Yes, she is growing. I now take her once a week to a Grandma and me class. I know I’m loving it.

So is she. It’s fun to reconnect with mothers who are now grandmothers. The other kids love her. She is the youngest right now, the two year old girl really like having her around. Notice the toy she is playing with?

It took some research to find it online, I had to get it for her. It is a very easy one for her to grab onto and put into her mouth.

Also, yay for narwals! she just has one one her shirt, but that narwal tusk in London last week helped subdue a horrible terrorist. Unfortunately after he killed innocents.

The crane is a big success, as you can see, it is even a little taller than Westley.

December this year has been cold and rainy. Which makes for more colorful foliage. But when a clear warm day arrives, it’s off to our local lake, Balboa lake.

The swan and the duck. There are plenty of birds here, this time I didn’t see the Canada geese or the cormorants, but then I was just sitting and knitting, not walking around.

Another kind of swan, plenty of people out on these boats. It is lovely how well used the park and lake are.

Leah

I can’t say I loved making this quilt. This is one of these where I am so happy with the end result, even if the journey wasn’t all that fun.

Here the quilting is done. I’ve trimmed the excess fabric and batting. Just thinking about how to bind it.

I’m happy to say that I had enough of this batik for the backing. It’s a fabric I bought for $2 at the quilt guild sale in the summer. All the fabric except for this was from my stash. But I consider 2′ of fabric at $2 to be stash.

Not that easy to see against the wooden background. I used a green/khaki for the binding. It doesn’t appear anywhere else in the quilt, but it just feels right.

That Op-art look that can make one somewhat dizzy.

The wonders of quilting. The center yellow star wasn’t all that great. Once quilted, no-one can see the imperfections. I enjoyed using a different pattern and matching the thread to the colored diamonds. I really had to restrain myself and not quilt the light facets. For me, this is huge restraint.

The back, with the binding.

The label. I’m less concerned about naming my quilts these days. This is the pattern Mandala by Dora of Orange Dot quilts. So I just called it Mandala.

For now it is replacing my previous project as a table topper on the dining room table. It looks lovely. I now have a runner and two toppers that I have made… Need to switch them out. I am considering making a full size table cloth. Because how many quilts does one need? So if it’s a different purpose…

This isn’t to say that I won’t gift this some day. Either as a table topper or as a baby quilt. I figure, it’s not going to be used and abused. My work is worthy of being gifted, and the recipient shouldn’t mind that it has been sitting out on my table, rather than hidden away from view. You know I am very careful who gets my work, no one who would be insulted by that would ever be considered ‘quilt-worthy’

Can you see how lovely the quilt looks with the lighter facets left unquieted? Give real dimension to the piece. Also, I used wool batting, all the remnants of my wool batting. That is what gives this more volume and poof.

So yes, I’m thrilled with the result. This is my final project for 2019. I will get back to my Baltimore Album, but that is slow sewing at it’s best. I have no idea what my next quilting project will be. It’s a mystery.

Leah