Back to the Northern Hemisphere

The last few days in New Zealand were wonderful, especially because we saw Daniel once again. Our schedules overlapped for about 3 hours in Picton (northern end of the South Island). He and his traveling companion Lotem arrived on the ferry from Wellington in the early morning and we caught the same ferry to Wellington later that afternoon. We walked around the town, had breakfast in a funky restaurant and then took a short hike around the bay.

Daniel, Lotem and me in Picton

After saying goodbye (we'll see Daniel in Zurich for Pesach--yay!), we returned to the North Island on the ferry and then headed to Napier, a town in the North Island that was rebuilt in 1931 in the Art Deco style of architecture after a major earthquake leveled the town. We didn't have time for a walking tour, so we just strolled a bit.

Art Deco building in Napier

Our last night in NZ was spent in Auckland and we had time to walk around the wonderful Domain once again and see the War Memorial Museum.

We broke up the long flight back to Israel with a 24-hour stop in Bangkok. We hired a guide and driver who showed us the many beautiful Buddist temples and the outside of the Imperial Palace. The king (the longest serving monarch--63 years) is revered and we saw many huge pictures of him around the city, on buildings and bridges.

At one of many Buddist temples



Seated Budda

Imperial Palace (European and Thai architecture)

We arrived back in Haifa on Jan. 21 for a quick 10-day turnaround before flying to Zurich on Feb. 1 and beginning our European portion of the sabbatical. We had a busy time seeing Adam, friends, fixing things in the house and checking mail. Super whirlwind!

On to more adventures!

Haifa sunset from our balcony