Burning NZ Questions

This week I am writing to you from Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. I am touring here for a week, before I go to the quilt festival next week on the North Island. New Zealand has been on my bucket list for a long time, and now I am finally getting some answers to all those burning questions I've had about New Zealand. Next week I can answer burning questions about New Zealand quilters! *smile*

There is no doubt that Peter Jackson's movies (Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, etc.) being filmed here has helped the local economy. Today I visited a wilderness area where scenes from these films were made, plus others like Narnia and The Wolverine. For awhile the photo of mountains on Coors Light Beer was from this area… not the Colorado Rockies where Coors is made! Funny!

I also toured the earthquake damage in Christchurch, and photographed the Botanic Gardens the day before. It is summer here, so the air was perfumed with blooming fl owers when I arrived at the airport Thursday.

On my second day here I visited a stunning mountain view that included the tallest peak in New Zealand – Mount Cook. Sir Edmund Hillary got his mountain-climbing boots broken in on Mt Cook, before climbing Mt Everest

One of the things that people wonder about when they visit New Zealand, is where are the animals? The only native land mammals in NZ are bats! Other land mammals such as sheep and possums were brought by the Europeans. The possum population has exploded because they have no predators in NZ. There are over 30 million sheep here in NZ, compared to 4 million people. I've been learning about various breeds of sheep here, and what type of wool they put out. The Merino Sheep are highly prized because of the high quality and fine fibers in their wool.

I can't help but compare the landscape to other places I have visited. I've been reminded often here of the Highlands in Scotland. New Zealand is 2 main islands, and the total size is roughly between the size of Japan and the size of Great Britain. Even though it is summer here, it is chilly on the South Island because we are closer to the Antarctic.

Tomorrow I will tour Milford Sound, which is actually a fjord.

For those of you going to the quilt festival in Palmerston North, be sure to get tickets to my presentation Friday Jan 16 at 2:30 pm – "International Quilt Trends".

(I'll be giving the same presentation in Mexico City in March.)