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The hands-down highlight of today was a visit to WOW, the World of Wearable Art museum in Nelson. The museum houses a selection of garments from the most recent World of Wearable Art show held each year in the capital city, Wellington. The display of wild, intricate, and sometimes outrageous garments had everyone thinking and talking energetically about techniques, materials, and ideas for their own work.

In addition to WOW, we visited a lace museum, enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Siefrieds, a long-established Nelson winery, made the most of the sunshine in a walk along Kaiteriteri beach, and met with Nelson carftswomen who run a successful fibre arts cooperative in the heart of Nelson city.

Today the garments from the Fashion show went on display in the exhibition area and several of our group rushed up to the Festival venue early to enjoy the close-up view of technique and details that weren’t evident from the catwalk while others were looking with a view to purchase garments. Despite the autumn season, we noticed several brilliant pohutukawa bushes blooming about the city. This coastal tree usually blooms in December and for that reason is known as the New Zealand Christmas tree. The mass of crimson blooms has become an icon of the New Zealand summer.

Today, our group scattered again as everyone headed in different directions, depending on whether they were taking classes at the Festival, enjoying the national exhibition, going on local tours of the Taranaki region, shopping at the vendor exhibits, or just hanging out in New Plymouth. This is a great chance to meet spinners, weavers, and knitters from all over the country and find out about New Zealand through the people who live here.

Many of our group attended the evening fashion show that showcased over eighty garments and outfits in a wealth of colour, fibres and techniques. Wool, alpaca, mohair, and silk were predominant and techniques ran the gamut—knitting, crochet, and weaving—with a surprising number of felted garments. Many of these defied the traditional idea of felt, with their soft, draping, frothy fabrics.

Today was spent mostly getting from Rotorua to New Plymouth, which means crossing the central plateau of the North Island to the west coast, for the New Zealand Creative Fibre Festival. Along the way we passed paddocks dotted mostly with cows but also a few sheep and deer. This region supports some of the most productive dairy farming in the world. Unfortunately, the reason for all this productivity (plenty of rain for spectacular pasture growth) caught up with us during the day but it didn’t really bother us in the coach.

We also passed through some excellent examples of New Zealand’s northern native forests, complete with tree ferns, our only native palm tree, the nikau, and epiphyte-laden rata trees. As we came into New Plymouth the clouds parted sufficiently for us to catch a glimpse of the snow-clad Mt Taranaki, the classic volcanic cone that forms the peninsula on which New Plymouth is located.

We spent much of today at the Maori cultural centre, Te Puia. The centre is nestled among the geysers and mud pools of the Whakarewarewa thermal reserve that fills the air with steam and sulphurous scents. We were welcomed onto the Marae with a traditional Maori ceremony designed to ascertain whether our intentions were truly peaceful. Having determined that we were not there to start a fight, the group treated us to an excellent concert of traditional Maori singing, chants, games, and poi dances.

Our Maori hosts for the afternoon, Shane and Candy (both weavers), guided us around the centre and explained the history of the Maori in New Zealand and the underpinnings of their culture. Knowing that we were particularly interested in fibre arts, they focused on how the Maori developed their textiles and their use of the native flax plant that provides most of their fibre needs. So that we could get a personal appreciation for New Zealand flax, they taught us some basic flax weaving techniques in the process of making woven flowers.

This morning we made a short trip from Auckland southeast to Rotorua, stopping briefly at Matamata, the tiny township where the hobbit village from the Lord of the Rings movies is located. On our way into town, we stopped at the Agrodome to catch their afternoon show. In an hilarious mixture of entertainment and information about New Zealand agriculture, we were able to see and compare the appearance and fleeces of nineteen different breeds of New Zealand rams.

One of our group couldn‘t resist the lure of the “Zorb” that we passed on our way to the Agrodome and with everyone’s admiration, rolled and bumped down a zigzag luge-like course inside a giant plastic bubble!

Despite adjusting for the time difference, everyone looked very chipper and eager to explore this morning. The group scattered in many different directions for many different activities: shopping at the craft-oriented Victoria Street Market, learning about the local sea life at Kelly Tarlton’s aquarium where fish and other sea creatures swim around and above you outside a Perspex (Plexiglass) tunnel, riding the ferry across the harbour to picturesque Devonport one the area’s oldest settlements, or riding to the top of the Sky City tower—the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. Alas, no one from our group was eager to make the controlled jump from the top of the Sky Tower but we contented ourselves with watching others make the leap, wailing and screaming as they did so.

This evening, we gathered again to enjoy a fabulous welcome dinner at an Auckland harbour-side restaurant. The menu featured locally grown and harvested seafood.

Twenty four intrepid journeyers arrived to a beautiful early morning in Auckland city. Among the sites we took in this morning, was Mt Eden, the largest of the 48 extinct volcanic cones forming the geological underpinnings of Auckland. Our Driver squeezed the coach up the winding road to the top of the road so that we could enjoy panoramic, harbour-to-harbour views of New Zealand’s largest city.

We spent some time at the Auckland Memorial Museum gaining some geographical and historical context for the country through the museum’s magnificent collection of Polynesian and colonial artefacts. The museum’s recent expansion has added new display areas and facilities that complement the collection.

With a harbour on each side and mild climate, Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, is a haven for year-round sailing and we spent a couple of hours sailing on Auckland’s Waitemata (sparkling waters) Harbour. Bright sunshine, calm water, and a consistent, light breeze made for ideal sailing conditions and several of our group tried their hand at the wheel. For a while we sailed in company with one of the former Team New Zealand America’s Cup boats.

And so it was a tired but happy group that went to bed for a good night’s rest.