On Sunday, March 10th, Helen, Deborah, Lisa and I visited the Howick Historical Village, where (decades ago) Deb portrayed Maggie, an Irish immigrant to NZ, so she led our tour delightfully. Lisa and I put ourseves in “pillories” for photo ops. Debbie says a female ghost/apparition lives in one of the buildings, and that she has seen her a time or two. I had no doubt after going through the building. At one place in it, I felt as if the flooring (on the second floor) was slightly waving beneath my feet. No one else noticed it, but it was obvious to me, and it lasted a few seconds each time.
The haunted residence
“Soddy” Deborah lived in as Maggie for five weeks, in character, at Howick Historical Village
That evening, Helen hosted a family barbecue in her back yard for her daughter Wendy, son-in-law Stephen, neighbor Neil, Mark, Lisa and me. Because Neil attended, we got to thank him for raising the American flag for us and got to know him a little better. Helen held the BBQ, she said, so we could get to know Wendy and Stephen before we all gathered the next day at the Auckland Zoo to go through and enjoy it. It was a great idea. Wendy and Stephen are terrific people.
Addendum June 15 2024: it was during our preparations for the family barbecue when Deborah took a tumble down several steps and broke her ribs. A latched gate pushed open when she leaned on it and she fell, head first, down four steps and landed on her ribcage on one side.
We spent long moments tossing dog toys for Rafferty to find and fetch whenever we were at home. We did our best to wear him out, but it never happened!
Monday March 11th AUCKLAND ZOO VISIT
Before leaving for the zoo, Helen turned on a NZ game show called LINGO that had both Lisa and me transfixed. It’s a word game, so we looked for something similar online in the apps store and found it so we could continue to play it after we got back home.
At the Auckland Zoo, visitors enter first on a long walkway that looms over an African animals enclosure. But our “welcome” by the animals within that compound was entirely unprecedented!
Below us were giraffes, zebras and ostriches, all of them apparently focused on something that was happening directly beneath the platform we were on. Turns out is was a feral cat in the bushes, but for long moments we were able to capture some amazing images that would otherwise not have been possible.
The Auckland Zoo is easily the best zoo I’ve ever been to. Its displays are spectacular, the animals all look happy and are well cared for.
At the gift shop, I bought a bat and a seal for my Critter Corral (living/guest room) and a t-shirt.
Funny anecdote (shared with Lisa’s permission):
Lisa got a little bit “backed up” (constipated) during the flight to New Zealand, so Helen bought her some prunes and prune juice. Lisa dutifully drank the beverage on Sunday night but by Monday morning not much had changed — except in ME!
I don’t know if it was the empath in me or what it was, but on Monday morning I was evacuating about every fifteen minutes for more than an hour! I finally wandered over to Lisa and told her, “Well, I want you to know you should be feeling much, much better very soon! I’ve been (evacuating) for you all morning long!”
NEW ZEALAND OFFERS TRUE RELAXATION/R&R
Before I continue with my travel journal, I want to jot down my impressions of New Zealand in the order I experienced them.
I don’t know if it’s the negative ions from the ocean being so nearby, plus the naturalness of the surroundings (bush/foliage) but I immediately experienced a sense of enormous peace. All worries seemed so distant as to be mere reflections/faint memories of an earlier era.
The people are super courteous and friendly. Even the road signs are courteous and feel personalized! I wish I had taken some images of them but they passed by so quickly that I wasn’t able to catch any of them.
True multiculturalism is in evidence in NZ.
Being there–even as busy and active as we were–was relaxing and rejuvenating. (This doesn’t mean I didn’t go down like a dead horse for four days after returning home. I caught COVID on the way back and the jet lag, or whatever, nailed me big time!)
