Reflections

We've been so busy since we returned home cleaning up after the storm that reflecting on our trip has been far from my mind.  But now we have the essential tasks completed I can relax and think.

At first I was of two minds about our venture Down Under: We saw many different places but the the coach travel with so many people was tedious. It was go and stop-and-see, then go again. Then I realized that what was missing from the itinerary and the trip director's informative but rather pedantic commentary was a meta-theme or "mission", which might have been "places, people and their pursuits."  With this thought I could review my 2,000+ photos (Jack's and mine) and have a new appreciation for all that we experienced. Each site gave a different perspective on the peoples of the two  very separate countries, especially as previously I had lumped both together.

I always ask myself, "What surprised me - what did I not expect, but gave me a cultural shock?" My answer for this trip was that it did not feel "foreign."  The language (more English than American but with the local accent) and general lifestyle were familiar- after all, they drive on the left (i.e., "right") side of the road!

I have been debating what to add as my final picture - and in keeping with the rules of blogging it can be only one. I've decided on the vegetation, that ranged from dessert to tropical rainforest to the omnipresent "bush".  So rather than the exotic trees and plants of the botanical gardens of Sydney, Melbourne or Auckland, here are some "tree ferns" of the bush in Marlborough Sound, North Island New Zealand.