We left Dunedin and traveled through the Taieri Plans where sheep and dairying are the primary industries. We stopped for lunch at this lovely quaint Orchard Garden Cafe.

 

And once again, the spectacular gardens featured beautiful flowers. 

 

This garden also had an interesting Hedge Maze. Our trusty guide made sure he didn’t loose any quilters in the maze.

 

When we were off again, we found out that we had made the paper. There was an article and picture about our visit with the Dunedin Quilters.

The article started off with “Introduced as the “Tiger Woods of quilting”, visiting American author Carol Doak said in Dunedin yesterday quilting was undergoing a resurgence as more people embraced traditional art forms.

The author of 17 books on quilting, which have sold more than a million copies worldwide, was visiting Dunedin with 40 other quilters “on a trip of a lifetime”.

“We have had a great time,” she said.”

OK, so I am not sure how I am going to live up to that introduction….lol…if you want to see the photo and read the entire article, you can at 

http://www.odt.co.nz/your-town/dunedin/40879/quilters039-trip-well-sewn

 

We passed by a hydro dam, a major source of energy for New Zealand.

 

The color of the water was gorgeous.

 

We stopped by Kawarau, the original place that bungy jumping started. Now we had been teasing Steve for days telling him he should jump and he would have none of it. So imagine our surprise as we stood at the railing watching others jumping to find out that our own Steve was jumping and so was his wife! He and Amy are our heros!

 

It was amazing!!!!

 

All smiles now, but boy I bet the knees were knocking when they were looking down before the jump.

 

As soon as we arrived in Queenstown, we took a gondola ride to the top of Bob’s Peak to see the view….just breathtaking.

 

Our first morning in Queenstown, Beth and I headed over to the arts center where we met Sue Wademan. Sue is know for her wonderful unique landscapes.

 

We also visited Sue in her studio where she showed us this special piece. The words printed in script on the front of the quilt are the last words that Robert Falcon Scott wrote in his diary before he and his fellow explorers died. Sue said that she felt their pain as she traced those words onto a stencil to print over the already pieced quilt…

They read…

‘We shall stick it out to the end but we are getting weaker…and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.

R Scott

Last Entry

For Gods sake look after our people,

 

We ventured out into the downtown area to view the sites. I took this picture of Beth at the Harbor. We had traveled for almost two weeks together and had a wonderful time getting to know each other, laugh and explore.

 

We stopped for a latte and this is how they delivered it to the table. It was decorated with a familiar site for New Zealand.

 

We all gathered that night at the Boardwalk Restaurant for our farewell dinner. We had been together for nearly two weeks and experienced so much. Saying goodbye was not going to be easy.

 

On the morning we were to leave, as happened several times before in other New Zealand Cities, we were invited to a tea put on by the Quilters of Queenstown.

 

And as in other places, they went to the trouble of putting out their quilts for us to see.

 

All of the Queenstown quilters were so welcoming and made us feel so at home. It was the perfect way to end our tour of New Zealand.

 

Our bags were packed and we gathered at the Queenstown airport in the gate area ready to board our plan, heading home. When we looked up, there we saw Sue Wademan’s quilt bidding us farewell.

 

We came from all parts of the United States and Canada. The thing that bound us all was our love of quilting, or we loved and/or supported a quilter. We had the spirit of adventure and the desire to explore this wonderful country, New Zealand. We saw much, we experienced many new things, we made new friends along the way and we became a family.

My deep thanks and gratitude are extended to:

All New Zealand Quilters who added so much to this trip by sharing with us their friendship and their quilts

Uncle Steve Grace, Nephew Steve Grace and Amy Grace for all your efforts to make this trip truly a trip of a lifetime. Your planning was exquisite and your execution right on.

All the members of our group who made this trip such a pleasure and for sharing your time with us. I loved getting to know you all!

Beth Hayes for the opportunity to help her escort this tour and for her friendship. Many thanks buddy.

The end.

All the best,

Carol

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 6:43 pm and is filed under New Zealand Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.