Travel with Art

Hi all, my next trip is coming up in a few days... I fly to Toronto on January 30th, meeting up with Kerry & Donna (flying in from Winnipeg) and staying at the home of John Tyler. This portion will be my deep freeze... On February 3 the 4 of us fly on to Curaçao. February 10 return to Toronto for 3 days and I fly home to Victoria on February 13th. In the Southern Carribean lie a few small islands that form the remnants of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Once a vast empire, it now consists of The Netherlands and the tropical islands of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten. Curaçao is the biggest of the three and a popular tourist destination for mainly Dutch and American holiday makers. Our plans include lazing on beaches, sipping Caribbean rum (and perhaps other beverages), snorkeling, scuba diving... and a wander around the island possibly taking in the highlights: Willemstad (the capital) - center of which is a UNESCO World Heritage location Adjacent Otrobanda 

Zigzagged out of Invercargill then along fairly flat sheep and cattle ranch country heading to Fortrose.  Here the view is the Toetoes Estuary, an area containing approximately 400 hectares of tidal flats. Now in The Catlins...an area in the southeastern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. The area lies between Balclutha and Invercargill, straddling the boundary between the Otago and Southland regions. It includes the South Island's southernmost point, Slope Point. Waipapa Point & lighthouse. Oldest wood built lighthouse in NZ. Sea lion as sunning on the shore and then rolling in the sand to add sun block. Onwards through a pretty rolling hills landscape on a road with twists and turns. Took side road down to Slope Point. Then a 27 minute return walk through sheep pasture to the southern most NZ mainland point. Driving on through a series of scenic reserves on some of the twistiest roads I’ve driven on. Destination Pur

The first part of the drive was through gently rolling hills, lightly turning roads with long flat sections, and occasional single lane bridges (that are very common in New Zealand).  Also there was minimal traffic. Along my route I stopped to take a photo of an old small yellowish building (its a color I found repeated in many of the older buildings here in New Zealand) ... It was a Little School House on the Prairie (well Flat). Clifden Suspension Bridge near Clifden. New Zealand’s longest wooded suspension bridge spanning 111.5 meters above the Waiau River. Here there was a portable coffee/lunch bar, a guy with a speed boat taking punters on a high speed trip on the Waiau, and a rooster with a hen. McCracken's rest: A viewing platform provides excellent views of Te Waewae Bay and the tiny one million year-old Solander Islands to the south - formed by the eroded skeleton of a volcano. According to Maori legend, the Solanders are the broken tooth and cr