New Zealand

New Zealand
2019

Rick had a speaking gig on the Crystal Symphony in New Zealand in the spring of 2019

Auckland	Dunedin	Dunedin Station	Napier	Akaroa	Taieri Gorge Railway
Picton	Hawke's Bay	Tauranga	Larnach	Birds	Royal New Zealand Navy

Auckland

Auckland from Devonport

Auckland Harbour

Auckland Harbour Bridge

Ferry terminal

Ferry building

Auckland War Memorial Museum

Michael Joseph Savage memorial - 23rd Prime Minister of New Zealand

Sky Tower

Auckland Grammer School - supposedly the best high school in the country

Theater district

Mount Victoria - Devonport

Devonport

Devonport war memorial and library

Devonport

Great little spot in Devonport

Food trucks and container restaurants

Dunedin

Dunedin Law Courts

Former prison (1896)

The Allied Press Buiding, home the Otago Daily Times, first published in 1861, making it New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper

St Paul's Cathedral

Queen's Garden

Settlers Monument

Manchester Unity Chambers (1933)

Dunedin Railway Station

In an eclectic, revived Flemish renaissance style, (Renaissance Revival architecture), the station is constructed of dark basalt from Kokonga in the Strath-Taieri with lighter Oamaru stone facings, giving it the distinctive light and dark pattern common to many of the grander buildings of Dunedin and Christchurch. Pink granite was used for a series of supporting pillars which line a colonnade at the front. The roof was tiled in terracotta shingles from Marseilles surmounted by copper-domed cupolas. The southern end is dominated by the 120-foot clocktower visible from much of central Dunedin.

The booking hall features a mosaic floor of almost 750,000 Minton tiles. A frieze of Royal Doulton porcelain runs around the balcony above it from which the floor's design, featuring a locomotive and related symbols, can be clearly seen. The main platform is the country's longest, extending for about over 1600 feet.

The foundation stone was laid by the Minister of Railways Joseph Ward on June 3, 1904.

Akaroa

War memorial

Saint Peter's Anglican Church (1864)

Organ in Saint Peter's Anglican Church (1864)

Entrance to Akaroa harbor

Akaroa

Wharf in Akaroa

Araucaria trees

Napier

Bertie, the official town greeter to this art deco city

War memorial

Local theater

One of only two art deco McDonald's in the world

Napier is a major port for exporting timber

The Taieri Gorge Limited is New Zealand's longest tourist railway and stretches along the former Otago Central Railway from the 4 km marker on the Taieri Branch, 18 kilometers west of Dunedin, to Middlemarch, a distance of some 60 kilometers.

The line travels through spectacular scenery along the banks of the Taieri River, through numerous tunnels and climbing along the Taieri Gorge to the Strath Taieri. It crosses a dozen viaducts, including the southern hemisphere's largest wrought iron structure, and passes through ten tunnels.

Dunedin Railway Station

Picton

Fjord at Picton

Even the commercial port is scenic

War memorial

Rugby is the national sport

Hawke's Bay

View of the bay from Te Mata Peak

Te Mata Peak

View from Te Mata Peak

View of Craggy Range winery from Te Mata Peak

View from Te Mata Peak

Local kiwi and avacados

Red kiwi

Mission Winery

Vineyards on land created by an earthquake in the 1920s

Tauranga

Statue of Tangaroa, Maori God of the Ocean, in the harbor

Tauranga Harbour

Tauranga Main Beach

Tauranga

War memorial

Good to know

Intersting showers

Hibiscus

Larnach Castle

Larnach Castle (1871), is a mock castle on the ridge of the Otago Peninsula within the limits of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, close to the small settlement of Pukehiki. It is one of a few houses of this scale in New Zealand. The house was built by the prominent entrepreneur and politician, William Larnach.