Welcome to New Zealand!

After a very long, but mercifully uneventful day of travel, we're happily on the ground on the south island of New Zealand.  The 13 hours in the air between San Francisco and Christchurch went better than expected, with both Norma and I managing to get at least 6-8 hours of fitful sleep. Remarkably, after two days on the ground, we both feel like we've gotten beyond whatever jetlag we suffered.

We spent the first two days in and around Christchurch, including a visit to the Botanical Garden (excellent!), and out to the coast at Lyttelton for a couple of great walks along the shoreline cliffs.  Lyttelton is also the port where Niall spent several days a few years back when the USCG icebreaker Polar Star stopped here before heading south to Antarctica. Coincidentally, while we were here, we were able to see the new floating pier/barge (NSF Discovery) waiting in the harbour to be escorted by the Polar Star down to McMurdo base! Pretty cool... 😎 

Today, we headed north from Christchurch up along the coast to Blenheim in the Marlborough wine region.  Along the way, we stopped to see lots of fur seals, dolphins, and several new birds.  Right now, we're settling in to our a vineyard in the middle of a vineyard & enjoying a glass of local sparkling Pinot Noir that tastes remarkably like passion fruit - yum!
That's all for now from mid-summer here in NZ!
Cheers :-)

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