Saturday, February 17, 2007

New Zealand

This posting comes to you from sunny Wellington, New Zealand, in the middle of February, part way through a fantastic trip-of-a-lifetime with my son. We have spent two weeks in the North Island, being shown the sights by my good friend, Judi, and also a few days in Dubai, a quite unbelievable place. What struck me very much was the contrast between the two places - one almost totally man-made, and the other created by powerful forces of nature. We both thoroughly enjoyed Dubai and had great fun there, riding camels, doing a 4x4 desert safari and A. snow skiing in a shopping mall, but ....
it is the sheer awe-inspiring natural beauty of NZ that has really touched me. The variety of landscapes, colours, sounds and scents is so lovely. The people are really friendly and everywhere we have been so far there has been a welcome and a warmth that makes this place hard to beat.
And so what this has made me think about is the value of the natural things in life and how wonderful they are. A fern unfolding, a friendly smile or a cloud drifting across an azure sky, can be worth so much more than many material things.
Well, I hope to put up another posting from the Southern Hemisphere before we leave. In the meantime, I do hope your February is going well, wherever you are!