Akaroa

Hello and happy Mother's Day. I don't think that I have the hang of blogging yet. The time between posts is a little long and the content a little scarce. Well, . . .

I think that it hailed a half-an-hour ago. It's cold and dark this month but it make sense for the obvious reason that I am in the southern hemisphere. The south island feels a lot like Canada besides the seasons and stars being different. I never figured it out but I think that Orion and the moon are up-side-down.

Today I went to the town of Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. I wanted to take a harbor cruise but it was raining hard and I decided to remain dry. I went to the museum. I learned that the peninsula was a volcano six million years ago which explains its unusual shape. The Canterbury plains where Christchurch is located is flatter than Iowa. I went to another museum in Okains Bay. That one was very nice and I recommend it. It's not in "Lonely Planet" so I got off the book. At first I was the only visitor and had tea with the proprietor. He questioned me about why New Zealand needs to import a math professor and we lamented the lack of industry in the country. I think that New Zealand economy is based on three things right now: Sheep, Peter Jackson, and houses. Where do the Kiwi's get the money to support the housing market they have? I was in Twizel over Easter weekend and the median house price was 250k. There is nothing in Twizel except a dam and how many people are needed to operate a dam?

I bought another travel guide "New Zealand for Free" by Linda Duncan. Avoid it. I believe she only printed the telephone numbers for chambers of commerce. I had better luck with a walking guide from the local library. I finished its first walk on Saturday. The photos turned out well and I will post some someday.

By the way, why is the word "blogging" not in Bloggers dictionary?