Untethered

Hello friends! We hope this finds your world beginning to look a bit more normal.  We are certainly glad to be free to explore again.  The north island of New Zealand continues to surprise us with its variety of landscapes. Fruit harvest appears to be in full swing with lemons, limes, tangarines, avocados and kiwi fruit ready to be picked. We are living in the area of NZ that took the Chinese gooseberry and built a successful export industry by renaming this tasty gem, Kiwifruit.  This crop brings nearly $2B to their economy and employs about 30,000 people making it a very important business for NZ.  Our neighbors are a group of young people from Argentina who are participating in an Experience the World tour and they are employed by the kiwifruit industry.  So lucky for us, there is always a box of the tasty fruit available.  We've become expert kiwifruit eaters.  (Hint don't waste your time peeling them.  Just cut them in half lengthwise and the...

Kia Ora Per the words of the famous Willie Nelson song, we are "On the Road Again".  That little ditty has become our theme song and always makes us laugh as we sing it on the way to our next destination.  New Zealand has done a terrific job of stopping Covid 19 with no new cases appearing in the country.  Inter regional travel is once again allowed so we boogied to the north island pronto.  Our flight to Auckland was the first to carry people under the loosened restrictions.  The airport was nearly empty but our flight had every other seat filled. Air New Zealand at the Christchurch airport Our current home is on Mount Manganui beach with great views of the Pacific ocean.  It's so glorious to hear and watch the waves again.  Our back porch faces east so we're enjoying our morning coffee watching pink filled sunrises unfold over the ocean. Our path to the beach Great waves for surfing Sunrise drama Day two in our new locale f...

Hoa aroha! (Hello Friends in Maori) We hope this finds you and your loved ones staying healthy.  Our bubble in Christchurch, NZ is starting to be a bit less restrictive.  At our current level 3, construction workers were allowed to return to work as were many other non-retail workers.  Street traffic has increased considerably. It feels as if someone turned the volume up on the noise of life.  Christchurch is a city under construction.  It seems new homes, apartments and buildings are going up on nearly every block.  In addition, refurbishment of earthquake damaged historical buildings has also started back up.  The tradies (construction workers) are out in full force, playing their music loud and bantering with each other as they work.  You can fill their happiness as you walk by. Take away food and beverages are also allowed which has been a nice change of pace.  We've enjoyed watching people roam through the botanical gardens luggi...