We’re on the road again with Scotty, on our way to visit the beautiful town of Akaroa.Our route took us through this tunnel. I’m sorry, I still think we’re on the wrong side of the road!The trip there was very scenic.This was kind of bizarre , they planted these trees in a perfect square! It’s called a forestry block, pine trees for future harvesting. This particular one is called the Damn Square of Akaroa.These are our first glimpses of their beautiful bay.My obligatory shot of a pier, love the shadow!Interesting tree.Every fisherman’s rules!Downtown Akaroa, beautiful flowers everywhere.We were intrigued with The Giants House. After a short debate about trudging up the hill to see it, we decided to go for it. After all, we came half way around the world to be here!The artist, Josie Martin, who has lived here for 26 years found some shards of broken tiles or pottery while digging for a garden and she had the idea of creating some artwork from it. That plus when she began, the town and neighbors donated more. It expanded exponentially from there! She calls it The Happiest Garden in the World!Jan and Joni “relaxing” on this tiled cement bench!The more we explore and look, the weirder it gets!I warned you! The farther you go the weirder it gets!These two are Joni’s favorites, NOT!Lane about to be eaten by a huge rabbit!Jan and Joni catching a little shade.I’m not sure exactly what this is representing?!?Upward and onward!Why not, an octopus next to an elephant!There was actually a nice view of the bay from up there.Yes, VERY steep stairs and no railings! They obviously don’t have OSHA here! BTW, I did not go down them!The hands have it!Those non OSHA approved stairs from down below.For a little normalcy intervention, some pretty flowers!And back to the non normal!More Topiary.Broken wine bottles? Use them too!Sure, why not!Jan making friends again! No, we’re not adopting him!Dove Sentries?Hopscotch anyone?This looks to be a work in progress.Yes, these are real flowers!Well, back down to reality!
Welcome back to the Casa de Ziegler II Blog! I know it’s been quite a while since we posted anything but we’re back now! We hope you enjoy our new adventure abroad in beautiful Australia and New Zealand. We spent the month of March there with our dear friends/family Joni Berg and Lane Hammond.
Sydney, Australia
Our Walking Tour of Downtown Sydney
This is the Garrison Church in Sydney, one of the many beautiful stone churches there.This bridge arch was pretty cool with the vines growing right out of the stone walls on either side!The message on the side of this rental bike cracked us up!This was a walkway along our walking tour.I saw this beautifully done drawing on our tour and, of course, I HAD to take a picture!Just a typical Post Box!Another church and great old world architecture,One of many wine shops.Open air dining abounds!This gigantic Cruise ship was in port!The skyline was impressive with the mixture of old world buildings and modern, very progressive design, architecture!The Contemporary Art Museum.And of course the very iconic Opera House! (More of this later on in this post!)The girls with the Opera House in the distance.One of the many (MANLY?!?) ferries available.An Australian White Ibis, a flightless bird.Cameras, cameras and more cameras! Even Australia has Big Brother watching!Some of the beautiful landscaping that was everywhere!A Silver Gull, common in Australia.LOTS of steps from the pier up to the street above!More beautiful flowers!We’re now in the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. This was an unusual art exhibit.Lane and Joni enjoying the Gardens.A view of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge from the gardens.I zoomed in with my 300mm to catch the crazy people who choose to walk over the top of the bridge! They actually pay money for this honor!!This exotic bird blends in quite well don’t you think?This tourist lady asked Joni to take her picture and of course she obliged! As you can also see in this picture is a view of the opera house you don’t usually see, the front side where you enter the building!Beautiful VERY old tree!This was a very “interesting” sculpture!Another very old tree!This wrought iron structure was pretty cool!This was constructed using smooth stones and cement.The Royal Government House (Estate, Mansion, ETC!!)Another view of the downtown architecture from the Gardens.Jan especially liked the “LEGO” building on the right!These trees are massive!Another impressive old government building near the gardens,
