November 8, 2019
(A rare current post from Cyndi)
Beautiful spring weather has arrived at last in Canterbury, New Zealand. At the moment, 5:30pm, the sun is shining brightly, the breeze is warm and fragrant with flowers, and it looks like this nice weather will continue for awhile. Our fans are on, the hatches are open, and I’m starting to eye our barbecue grill with thoughts of actually using it.
It wasn’t the easiest transition when, at the beginning of October, we left Hawaii and came back to New Zealand. We went from a very warm early fall to a very chilly early spring, but between our space and diesel heaters, we stayed cozy through a few cold days and nights in October.
It did help that on our arrival, Christchurch was living up to its motto of being the Garden City. It was chilly, but the city was awash in cherry blossoms, camellias, and daffodils. Then came the brightly colored rhododendrons, and now wildflowers are covering the hills, still green from the winter rains. I thought I’d miss the beautiful colors of Hawaii with its multitude of greens, exuberantly flowering trees and bushes, and beautiful blues in the ocean, but we have found all those things here in Lyttelton and Christchurch. (Below, a gallery of Lyttelton and Christchurch; you can click to enlarge and scroll through them).
In the next two weeks or so, we’ll be taking the boat up to Nelson, New Zealand, where we plan to enjoy a second summer after watching the season fade off in Hawaii. We’ve already said hello again to avocados and strawberries, and around the corner we’re anticipating blueberries, corn, and nectarines! After some time in Nelson, we’ll head to Australia, probably around February or so. At least that’s the plan.
As for now, I’m going to change direction in our blog. I’ve been working on a series of posts about the hazards of the cruising lifestyle. Rich refers to it as my “Doom and Gloom” phase, and I have to admit the blog is looking like an advertisement for Primetime (a TV show featuring stories about Americans doing bad things to other Americans).
So, while I still have a few more dangers to write about, I feel like switching gears and picking back up with our chronological posts. I’ll still put in more Cruising Lifestyle posts, but for now I’ll continue on with our story. I’m going to pick up where I left off as we left Fiji in late November 2013. Yes, it’s a long time ago, but having already done posts for certain eras (like much of our 2014 cruising in New Zealand), a lot of my work will be piecing existing stuff together. -Cyndi
Note: I am working on a post about the passages people are making now from the tropics to New Zealand, but I’ve decided to hold off on that one a bit longer.
