Heading to Australia

I'm writing this on Friday June 22

On June 18th was a free day. We had nothing scheduled and took advantage of it. I photographed what we saw out of our windows. Cool.

We took advantage of the hotel's washing. We to walked down the into the downton of Queenstown and explored their shops. David left us to go to Arrowtown to explore the old rush. Dad returned to the hotel after lunch. Dea Jae and I walked around and explored the more "arty" gift shops. We walked along the beach of Lake Wakatipu.

We ate dinner in town and called a cab to take us back to the hotel. Early night.

Tuesday June 19 Queenstown to Christchurch

When booking your extensive look of a country add up all the hours you are on a coach. We were picked up in front of our hotel around 8:30 and headed north to Mount Cook. Awesome landscape. It was a bit foggy and frosty. The temp was around -1 degrees C, which is about 32 degrees in our world. When it fogs during such cold weather, dew freezes on everything. It builds up and everything looks like they've been flocked for Christmas. I worked at it but I think I got a decent picture of Mount Cook.

We made a few Tea Stops along the way. We pulled into Christchurch around 6:20 p. m. We didn't get to see much of this town.

June 20th we flew out of Christchurch to Auckland and then switched plains for Melbourne around 6 pm. Another early night.

June 21th we met up with Boyd. He took us down to Federation Square. This is an art center of a variety of different galleries. Boyd wanted us to see their Aborigine gallery.

The architecture of this building looks quite spectacular next to the old buildings around it. Inside the windows look like sculpture. It was easy to get around.


The Aborigine art is quite different from the Maori. I've taught it in my classroom. Depending upon which kind of image you're looking at. Their work is very detailed. They can use dots to form a shape. They can use fine lines to fill a space up. Dad was quite impressed by it. We took a free bus around the down town. We got off and ate lunch with Boyd's sister. We seperated at this point and we explored on our own.

I walked down to the Fitzroy Gardens. It was quite windy but very beautiful. I continued on and ended back at the Federation Square. I finished up the rest of the Ian Potter galleries. They've done a good job of represtenting their Australian Identity. Like the US, they have had to struggle with the European influence and establish their own eras of art. I did see a few modern pieces I liked.

We ended up back at the hotel. David, Dad and I ate together while Dea Jae 'pooped out" back in our room.

Today we are planning to go to the "Victoria Markets"