Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

I mentioned last week that I was off to Wellington. I’m posting photos this week.

1. We left from Auckland Airport.

2. It was raining in Auckland, but we had wonderful weather in Wellington. There were quite a few unaccompanied children on the flight, flying home after school holidays. They cracked me up with their shrieks of joy each time we hit turbulence.

3. We caught the cable car from the inner city to the Botanic Gardens.

4. There were great views out over the harbor.

5. It’s autumn here in New Zealand and the trees are changing color.

6. It was ANZAC day and there were wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

7. We had dinner at the Backbencher pub, which is opposite our Parliament. Very yummy food.

8. The pub is known for its caricatures of our politicians. This is Helen Clark (a recent Prime Minister) and Winston Peters (very colorful is the kindest way to describe him)

9. And this is Jenny Shipley who was the Prime Minister prior to Helen Clark. She looks remarkably like the fairy godmother from the second Shrek movie.

10. This is the Buzzy Bee. Buzzy Bee is a well known childrens’ toy and is considered a NZ icon.

11. This is me at the rugby stadium, also known as the CakeTin.

12. The next day we went to Te Papa to see the Monet exhibition. I also wanted to see the colossal squid. The squid didn’t photograph very well, but it was very interesting.

13. This is me outside Te Papa. The Monet exhibition was crowded, but very good. My favorite was the painting of Monet’s wife Camille and their child. My hubby loved the one of the Haystacks.

And that’s me for this week. I’m off to Samoa tomorrow. I hope you’ll pop back during the next few days to check out my Samoan photos.

Thirteen Things about Wellington and my upcoming weekend.

1. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and is about an hour flight from Auckland.

2. It’s always very windy in Wellington. I’m hoping we have reasonable weather for our weekend since we’re intending to do a lot of walking and outdoor things.

3. We’re going to visit the Botanic Gardens and ride the red cable car to the top of the hill, walking back down through the gardens.

4. There’s also a teahouse. I’ll probably need a cup of tea to warm up since we’re heading into winter down here in NZ.

5. We might wander past our parliament buildings, also known as the Beehive because of the round shape.

6. There’s a pub near the Beehive called the Backbencher where they have 3-D puppet heads of NZ politicians on the walls as decorations. We’ll probably stop by for a drink.

7. We’re going down to see an exhibition of Monet paintings at the Te Papa Museum.

8. According to the Te Papa site we’ll see twenty-seven stunning paintings by Claude Monet – including works from his Water Lily, Haystacks, and Rouen Cathedral series – plus works by Impressionist masterpieces by Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro and others.

9. While I’m at Te Papa I’m looking forward to seeing the giant squid that they dissected last year. They broadcast the proceedings on the Internet and people watched around the world.

10. We might fit in some shopping and definitely some eating.

11. On Saturday night we’re off to the rugby at the stadium on the waterfront. It’s affectionately called the Cake tin because of its shape. Wellingtonians are big on nicknames!

12. It’s ANZAC day, the day where Australians and New Zealanders remember the battle at Gallipoli and our fallen soldiers. The curtain raiser match is NZ Army v Australia Army.

13. The main match is a Super 14 game (the tournament where NZ, Australian and South African teams battle it out) and the ACT Brumbies are playing the Hurricanes. (Australia team v New Zealand team) It should be a great match. I just hope it doesn’t rain!

What are you doing this weekend?

Thirteen Photos of New Zealand

I thought I’d do a photo blog today, introducing you to some of my favorite parts of New Zealand. Unfortunately, I lost quite a few of my South Island photos when our computer crashed last year. It’s a good excuse to make a return visit, I think!

1. Wellington – this photo is taken from the top of Mt. Victoria looking down on the central city and waterfront. The stadium (the round thing) is the home of the Hurricane rugby team.

2. This is Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, not far from inner Wellington. They have many rare and endangered birds here. The birds are free to fly in and out, but the entire sanctuary is surrounded by possum proof fencing to keep these and other pests out. The lake was originally a reservoir for the city. When it was no longer requried, the area was restored to forest and wetlands.

3. This is Rangitoto Island, the youngest of the dormant volcanoes in and around Auckland. The distinct cone is visible from many parts of the city. This shot is taken off a boat on the harbor.

4. This is Middlemarch. It’s a small country town in the South Island and the setting for my Middlemarch Mates series. This is a shot of the typical country surrounding the town. Look closely and you might spy one of the Mitchells…

5. This is Lady Knox geyser, not far from Rotorua in the North Island. It was discovered by a prisoner work party. They were sent to do their washing in the warm water of the thermal stream and some of their soap dropped into a crack. The next minute a lot of foam bubbled up and then it exploded with prisoners and washing flying in all directions. When I visited as a kid, you could stand under the geyser as it erupted with the warm water raining down on you. These days visitors have to watch from afar. The geyser plays most days after the guide puts soap inside the funnel. It’s a very interesting process to watch.

6. Huka Falls – the Waikato river (the longest river in NZ) exits Lake Taupo (the largest lake). Huka Falls is not far from Taupo and there is a beautiful bush walk to get to it.

7. Goat Island Marine Reserve – not far north of Auckland. It’s a marine reserve that’s popular with divers and snorkellers. You can also paddle off the beach and huge snapper swim around your legs. Personally, I didn’t like the look of their teeth and felt safer looking down from the rocks! This is a popular day trip for families.

8. Waiotapu, one of the thermal regions near Rotorua. This is the beautiful Champagne pool. The colors don’t show that well in the photo but they are terracotta and turquoise. Very pretty. The day we were there the wind came up blowing steam around and spoiling the photo.

9. This is a shot of central Auckland from the harbor. You can make out the Sky Tower, which is the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere. The Sky Tower is mentioned in my book Summer in the City of Sails.

10. This is a shot of the crater of Mt Eden in Auckland and some of the city looking out to the sea. Many people go up the Sky tower to get views of the city, but I think it’s hard to beat the view from the top of Mt. Eden. And it’s free! If you look closely you can make out people standing deep in the crater. Look for the colored dots.

11. This is Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. It’s a beautiful spot and a place that’s also mentioned in some of my Middlemarch Mates books. It’s the heart of adventure sports in New Zealand and tourists flock here to scare themselves silly.

12. Mt Cook – New Zealand’s tallest mountain and part of the Southern Alps range. I used this as the setting in Stray Cat Strut.

13. This is a shot of the Kaikoura mountains, north of Christchurch in the South Island. This area is known for whale watching and is one of the few places where you can watch whales all year round.

And a shot of one of the whales.

Do you have any questions about New Zealand?

In honor of my recent visit to Wellington, THIRTEEN THINGS about WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND.

1. Wellington is the captial of New Zealand.

2. It is VERY hilly, even more so than Auckland and San Francisco. After a day spent exploring, I woke up the next day with sore thigh muscles. No need to buy a thigh master, just visit Wellington!

3. The city of Wellington is known for its wind. Evidently this is because of its position to Cook Strait. (the passage of water between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The prevailing North-West winds accelerate through the strait giving 173 days with winds greater than 60kph (32 knots) each year on average.

4. There’s an inland island rare bird sanctuary only 5 minutes drive from the center of Wellington, which is pretty amazing. See yesterday’s post.

5. The parliament buildings are known as the Beehive because of their shape. The Beehive is the newer parliament buildings while the old building is the elegant one alongside.

6. People seem to build their houses on top of hills and they balance precariously. Many of the homes are original Victorian buildings.

7. Wellington is home to Peter Jackson and sometimes called Wellywood.

8. Our national musuem Te Papa is in Wellington. My favorite part was about our animals and I really enjoyed the section on our geology. Mr. Munro and I went into the earthquake simulation, which was amazing – an old building that shook and trembled. The earth moved! In fact, the earth kept moving for a while after we left. It was neat but weird, too.

This is one of the Maori panels plus a model of a moa and our local hawk. Both birds are extinct now but were the largest birds in the world at the time.

9. Wellington sits on a fault line and they have lots of earthquakes.

10. Mt. Victoria gives a scenic view of the city and harbor. I’m glad we could drive up rather than walking! This is me up the top of Mt. Victoria.

11. There are quite a few vineyards around. We went to Martinborough – a relief to walk around here since it was flat!!

12. All the vineyards are close to town. We hired bikes and rode around the vineyards.

13. And we stopped to have lunch and sample some of the wines. This is me relaxing at lunch. We rode around 10kms on our bikes before heading back to the hotel to soak in a spa bath. A very relaxing weekend.

I’m home. We had a wonderful long weekend down in Wellington, although the little dog wasn’t well and had to make a trip to the vet. She seems okay this morning, which is good news.

I received another new cover while I was away. This is for my April release, Wanderlust. I really like the cover since the artist has captured the exotic flavor I wanted. There’s an excerpt and blurb up on my website on the coming soon page.

I’m off for a long weekend. Hubby and I are hitting Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and also Martinborough. Some of you might recall Lily and Alex from Never Send a Dog to do a Woman’s Job visited both places…

…which, leads in nicely to the fact that I’m the Spotlight Author at Author Island today. I’m giving away a print copy of Romancing the Alien.

How are you spending your weekend?