For the record, our last night in New Zealand was marked by another wonderful dinner at our favorite Wellington restaurant, GREAT INDIA. Just a sad, but magic time leaving this country that has been so welcoming and enjoyable.
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OK! As Jody and I wind down our trip to New Zealand (Middle Earth), you knew that we had to bring some of Middle Earth back with us, right? But of course, I now have the ONE RING with the evil Mordor script burned onto its surface along with the chain that Frodo wore on his trip to Mount Doom. Jody has her EVENSTAR pendant worn by Arwen, who gave it to the future king of Middle Earth, Aragorn (AKA Strider), when she renounced her Elvish immortality for the love of a mortal. Pretty neat. Now, if only I can get enough courage to put my ring on and do something cool while invisible. 
As we enter the last two weeks in New Zealand, I have now devolved into playing with paints in the sandbox. My first oil painting since I painted by numbers as a child (don't laugh). Under Jody's tutelage, my impression of the Milky Way over the Church of the Good Shepherd in Tekapo, New Zealand about three weeks ago.  This is one of our favorite iconic pieces of popular culture artwork from New Zealand. It depicts Mickey Mouse transfprming into an indigenous Maori.    My hiking boots purchased from Target for $60.00 last December 2013 before leaving for New Zealand. These boots took me over volcanoes mountains, rivers, streams, Wellington streets, the Bush, etc without a problem. They kept my feet totally dry as well. Before leaving I read that I would need to spend about $200 on boots. Not true! I wear them virtually every day. I love 'em! 
Just two weeks after our wonderful "night sky" trip to Tekapo, another major event occurred last night - the performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony performed by the New Zealand Orchestra in Wellington. I've been waiting to hear this symphony performed "live" for 45 years. It was glorious. The NZ Symphony easily matches our major symphony orchestras in Sarasota and Tampa. This 1 hour, 20 minute work of musical genius held the audience in thrall. I consider it THE symphony of the 20th Century. It's the composer's "farewell" to life as he was dying from heart failure while composing it. It's filled with love of life and the heartbreak and final acceptance at leaving it. First performed in 1912, one year after Mahler's death, for me in many ways the symphony foretells the tragedy of the 20th century, a century marked with two world wars and unbelievable suffering and death on a worldwide scale. I defy anyone listening to this symphony not to be moved by its beauty, hence the NZ Orchestra's dubbing it "Terrifying Beauty". If you have never heard it, please do so, but have tissues ready. Jody and I followed this up with a wonderful Indian dinner at our favorite Indian Restaurant, Great India. What an unforgettable night! 
Happy Birthday Sweetheart! I get to be the first to wish you Happy Birthday as it is now August 1 in New Zealand, 16 hours ahead of the U.S. Love, Dick 
After checking out of our hotel, we returned to Mt. John to see what we couldn't see at night. We were so glad we did. What fabulous vistas that were completely lost to us at night. The perfect end to a great trip. 
What better way to start than with coffee at the Earth and Sky cafe. These Kiwis really know how to do this right. 
I get cold just looking at this. These are the three different observatories on Mt. John that we visited the night before. In the biggest one we had the privilege to look at Saturn, cut like a gleaming crystal in the night with its rings clearly visible. It almost looked fake. 
Lake Tekapo. 
The previous night view of the town in daylight. 
The church Jody visited in the morning. 
The Peppers Bluewater Resort where we stayed. 
Time to journey back to Wellington. Our extended trip "down under" is winding down. But still, there is some exciting stuff left in the month of August starting with Jody's birthday on August 1. Stay tuned!
 Getting suited up for the night sky tour. We were informed that these parkas were designed for use in climates as cold as Antarctica.   The town of Tekapo from the top of Mt. John gleaming like a jewel in the night. if you're wondering about light pollution, there is none from the town. The town is outfitted with special lights that yield almost zero light pollution. That is why Mt. John is one of the top places in the world to see the night sky in all its glory. In fact, the trail of the car's lights at the top of the ground horizon creates more light pollution than the entire town does. We could not take pictures of our surroundings on the mountain as flash was not allowed. It was a moonless night, as we had planned. The above picture, as well as the several night sky pictures which follow, were all taken with Jody's DGSLR camera attached to a "ridiculously expensive" piece of astronomy equipment. Her camera was set to manual, wide-open aperture and time-delayed shutter speed by the Astrophotographer. The equipment was adjusted to the rotation of the Earth so the desired image remained in focus and stationary. Just incredible! The following pictures are simply breathtaking.  The Milky Way Core - our galaxy - our home. Per Wikipedia, the Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. Its name “milky” is derived from its appearance as a dim glowing band arching across the night sky in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars. The term “Milky Way” is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος (galaxías kýklos, "milky circle"). From the Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within the Galaxy. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Up until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that all of the stars in the universe were contained inside of the Milky Way. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble definitively showed that the Milky Way is just one of many billions of galaxies  Further down The Milky Way/Coalsack Nebula and the Southern Cross. Per Wikipedia, the Coalsack Dark Nebula (or simply the Coalsack) is the most prominent dark nebula in the skies, easily visible to the naked eye as a dark patch silhouetted against the southern Milky Way. Crux /ˈkrʌks/, located in the deep southern sky, is the smallest yet one of the most distinctive of the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for cross, and it is dominated by a cross-shaped asterism that is commonly known as the Southern Cross. Although visible to the Ancient Greeks, it was seen as part of the constellation Centaurus, and not defined or accurately mapped till the 16th century.  The two Magellan Nebula. Per Wikipedia, the two Magellanic Clouds (or Nubeculae Magellani are a duo of irregular dwarf galaxies visible from the southern hemisphere, which are members of our Local Group and may be orbiting our Milky Way galaxy. Because they both show signs of a bar structure, they are often reclassified as Magellanic spiral galaxies.  The Eta Carine Nebula. Per Wikipedia, The Carina Nebula (also known as the Great Nebula in Carina, the Eta Carinae Nebula, NGC 3372, as well as the Grand Nebula) is a large bright nebula that has within its boundaries several related open clusters of stars This entire experience was very moving to both Jody and me and was personally one of the main experiences on my bucket list. I am happy now that I've experienced this dream of mine.
After Jody's early morning photography session, we left for Lake Tekapo Springs five minutes away for an afternoon of tubing? and hot springs relaxing.  Jody ready to "tube" down the long snow slope.  My new favorite picture of Jody.   And there she goes.  After an hour of tubing, we needed a nice HOT HOT soak in one of the three hot spring pools, each one hotter than the least. The view from the hot springs.         After a "rough" afternoon tubing and hot springing, we returned to our hotel for a great dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Here is the view from where we sat at dinner.  I just had to order this triple-threat chocolate dessert for us to split. The dinner was gourmet all the way. Now, its on to Earth and Sky under a beautiful cloudless night.
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July 2017
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