Visiting New Zealand

We saw the sun rise as we waited to board the plane at Tullamarine.

The plane wad 1 hour late leaving and we had to stay on the plane until the people with a connecting flight got off. 

But we collected the hire car/bus and joined the traffic jam that is the Western motorway I asked hubby to take a photo but nothing in gallery so I guess it didn't work 😒

We met Jenny for dinner and a catch up and forgot to take a photo - today we have driven north to Whangarei. We had coffee and a break in Wellsford 

The home of the lama for some reason! 

We had lunch by the water and I looked fir a cache, no joy, then we went to see the Hundertwasser art gallery and museum.  The building was designed by Hundertwasser and used mainly recycled materials. He believed in stepping lightly on this world.

The cupola on the top of the building 

And a roof top forest of native trees and plants.

The tapestries are lovely

This painting is made using West Coast black on linen  plus some find of fixative to keep it there, was very textural. 

Outdoor steps to the roof garden

The front of the building.

I will around here as this post is very photo heavy and  blogger on  the phone is not happy. 

Off to so some stitching before dinner.

L

Here at home

 things are slowly happening

Anthology blocks have been made, I left the blocks with tiny pieces and did the easier ones first, now they are all I have left and I have to do them!! At least I have learned lots from making them and can do them a little easier than I would have 2 years ago.

I found some strips behind the door of the sewing room, they have been there since 2017, when the Bellarine Quilters had a challenge - mine was never finished, so I am trying to get it done now!

The KOGO blanket is finished and ready to be delivered.

An orchid flower has appeared on the plant out the back

more Anthology blocks

and this weeks blocks - I think I have 5 more to make and I am done!! Then begins the job of the filler blocks and the sashings.

The strippy quilt is quilted and bound now and can go to Oncology next delivery.

I was in the sewing room last Wednesday, hubby was watching State of Origin, I had finished the Strippy quilt and wanted some straight sewing so I opened up Quilt Recipes by Jen Kingwell (I had borrowed the book from Guild) and started to make the Daylesford quilt - I had told myself I was not starting another quilt and here I go!! It is going to be scrappy, using what I have on the shelves.

This quilt top was made by one of the ladies at Bellarine Quilters, she wanted someone to quilt it and as no one else put up their hand I brought it home with me. So this afternoon I am going to sandwich it and start on the quilting.

That is all from this part of the world for now

Happy stitching.

Progress and heading home

We left Merrijig not long after 9am and headed for home.

We had a stop on Hay to find a geocache here

I have huge difficulty with these but the hint helped greatly here.

The PO is a lovely building, there was flooding here, the river was very high and the surrounds covered on water from the rain we had the day before. There was also heavy rain and trees down in Merrijig, we were blissfully unaware! We did see one car on its roof over off the side of the road, no idea what happened there either. 😳 

We arrived on Sorrento in good time and met Carleens hubby at a cache there I hadn't been able to find and he has. After a few minutes I could see it thank goodness, it took longer to get the lid back in place !

Looking up the street from the cache site 

Carleen and her hubby headed for home,  I decided to try for another cache I hadn't had luck with years earlier

I found it no problems this time 😄 this is the view nearby 

The cache is just near the railway line, this us part of the railway from Drysdale to Queenscliff,  often steam trains run along here. The rail line Drysdale to Geelong is now a walking/cycling path with lots of caches.

I did do dome stitching when we were away, this is the progress I have made with Tea and Cake a Judy Newman pattern.

I have reached the ends but there is still filling to do on the sides and another row of hexie flowers. Was great to get a second floor view.

I went out to get something from the car and saw these visitors

Back home now, did some weeding today and finished reading this book

Was a good read.

There was a wonderful  bookshop in Mansfield, I'm an old building with a bay window and creaky wooden floors. They has a set of books I have mostly read, I bought the last 2 in the series and then went back a few days later and got the rest!

A little extravagant but I enjoyed these and hope to read them again.

Happy stitching. 

Geocaching

Our next day out and about was to take advantage of the nearly fine weather

first stop at a park up the Mt Buller Rd, the cache took ages to find

Beautiful stream down rhe bottom there 

The kookaburra was watching us

Still some great colour on the trees

Further up the road we found this 

How good is that?? We found the cache nearby. Looks like the tree has grown and is pushing the door out of shape

we left a letter for the gnomes - I think it is aimed at kids but us big kids joined in too 😁

Next stop was over the road from Mansfield Zoo .  We could smell the bison before we saw them! Then on to another  no photo,  and another, but we got a bit lost and ended up at Gough Bay on Eildon.

Beautiful place for lunch not too many rain spots happened.

Back to the cache we missed

Next to a water measuring thingie  we found the cache after a while.

We even got a little sunshine 

Last cache for the day, over the road from rhe airport. 

I had a walk around the complex before dark

A little visitor

Phone is playing up again now so I will finish up until next post.

Happy stitching.