Leaving Christchurch behind, yesterday we set out for Lake Tekapo. We’d been driving along for a while when suddenly, out of nowhere, we turned a corner and someone dropped a whole pile of huge snow-covered mountains in front of the car. It was pretty unexpected to see them with so much snow this late in the year – we knew there would be mountains, but I guess we hadn’t really thought about how big they actually were.
Author: holly
We are at one with the ocean.
Sim explaining to a waiter why we enjoyed the salmon dishes at dinner so much, completely disregarding the queasiness we both experienced less than 12 hours earlier after being on the Pacific Ocean for 5 minutes.
Akaroa
We came to Akaroa on a recommendation from Kari and Niall, so I was like, BETTER BE WORTH IT. But to start at the beginning, yesterday morning we bid farewell to the North Island and flew in to Christchurch. For reasons clear to Sim, who developed our itinerary, it made more sense to go straight to Akaroa for a night, then return to Christchurch for a stay there.
We Just Blew In To the Windy City
Greetings from windy Wellington! We knew we wanted to come here, but were pretty much completely aimless when it came to any actual plans. Last night though, Sim noticed an interesting poster, so our first stop was a Ticketek office to book some VERY SPECIAL Kiwi entertainment (more tomorrow night!).
Walking in a Thermal Wonderland
The words “Thermal Wonderland” probably conjure different mental images depending on your upbringing. For me, my mind turns first to a fluffy quilt, knitted bed socks, and a glowing fireplace. Other more intrepid individuals might imagine a mountaineering supply store well-stocked with thermal underwear. Few among us, our geologist friends naturally excluded, would be likely to think of the almost literally infernal landscape I witnessed this morning.
A mostly-expected party
In a hole in the ground there lived a Holly (and Sim). Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Holly (and Sim)-hole, and that means comfort.
Holly’s Completely Comprehensive Glossary of Overwrought Cinematic Symbolography
APPLE: temptation.
ART, MODERN: terribly interesting and opinionated person who will turn out to have absolutely no substance.
BAT: darkness of the human soooooooul.
Continue reading Holly’s Completely Comprehensive Glossary of Overwrought Cinematic Symbolography
Amsterdam in the rain
It was beautiful weather when we arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday. Did we squander it?
Of course we did.
Zoo!
Here we are in Copenhagen, city of design and culture. So yeah, we’ve looked at some buildings, been to some museums, gazed at all the statues that have been donated to the city by the Carlsberg brewing company, admired the poster next to our hotel elevator entitled “A Century of Danish Chairs”, and generally been appreciative of all the cultural superiority.
Obviously, though, the highlight was today’s trip to the zoo.
Tromsø by day
We spent three nights in Tromsø. To be honest, we didn’t see that much of it by daylight, since we were mostly out at night and had to sleep sometime. But what we did see, I thought I would attempt to describe.