Stan and I are still not sure we gave Christchurch or the South Island of New Zealand its full due, but we had to catch a morning flight from Christchurch to Wellington on the North Island today.

Surprise, surprise! What a pleasant place!! We know we are in Wellington but it seems like San Francisco - there is a sizeable and stylish waterfront, Queens Wharf. There is a cable car line and you actually need it to get up the hill from the central business district and pier area, to the hilly residential districts. It seems so familiar. Wellington also reminds us of St. Thomas with houses built clinging beautifully to the steep hillside. And the sky today was a brilliant blue like that above the hillside homes we saw in Sorrento. Wellington, New Zealand is a treasure that is probably not on top lists for most traveling people, but it should be! I think it's relatively unknown in most circles because there are only 4 million people on all of New Zealand - no wonder they do not promote themselves. There is a lot of land here with few people, but I will tell you this, it definitely is a nice vacation destination.

We have a really comfy and nice back-bedroom/bath/kitchen apartment in the rear of a lovely old home a one block walk from the Botanic Gardens and from the cable car line that takes us directly from the hillside to city center far down below.

And already we have crossed paths with such nice, welcoming people who have gone far out of their way to be helpful to us and to make sure our stay here in New Zealand is nothing but good. They are constantly smiling and glad to see us. Somehow they all know we are from America - by the way, no one here calls our country "USA or the States." It's "America." I love that. I will never say I am from USA again. From now on, I am an American and I'm from America!

We arrived here about noon and made it to our apartment around 2 pm. After we settled in, we hiked out for a few staples and to get our bearings. A young man we met in a deli (who, guess what, trained in Hilton Head, SC!!) gave us recommendations for dinner. Amazingly, we actually found one of the restaurants, "Foxgloves," on the waterfront and enjoyed wine and a delicious dinner of bluff oysters and a skillet-grilled fish filet with fish croquette (reminded me of the beef croquette I could not wait for in Amsterdam which, in fact, had no beef!!) along with grilled romaine and a wonderful rocket, pear and hazel nut salad. Yum! Wonderful! Exciting food, at last!

We earned one of these days! A real vacation day. Tomorrow, if the weather is still good, like today, we will tour Wellington's fantastic Botanic Gardens. If it's rainy, we will see the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum.