A great day!

Jo is a very interesting, talkative, & friendly person. The 1st thing she said to me, as she laughed, is that the way I talked reminded her of Whoopi Goldberg.

Alison hadn't given her much notice of when she'd be visiting & didn't tell her that I was along. Luckily Jo's very easy going & doesn't celebrate Christmas so she had no plans. She invited us to stay with her till we leave on the 25th.

Her cat's name is Tilly & is a little skittish, young, & curious. Jo likes to put a ping-pong ball in the bathtub that keeps Tilly entertained for hours.

Jo's place is nice. Her garden is beyond compare, indescribable. She belongs to a garden club & gets clippings from everyone. Of all the multitude of flowers, she doesn't have one rose bush because they have thorns. She also has a vegetable garden & a green house.

She took a bus tour in 1981, halfway around the world, starting in Nepal & ending in London. The fascinating stories she tells about her trip are great. I wish she'd write a book.

Jo joined us on our excursions. First we went to Tunnel Beach. The history of this place is that a wealthy landowner, in the late 1800's, had two daughters that he overly protected. They were not allowed to go to the market or to the public beach because he didn't want them to get involved with any of the local boys. So he built a tunnel through solid rock down to a private beach on their property.

We walked down the stone steps of the tunnel to the beach. The tide was in so there wasn't much beach. It was still very beautiful. It rained a bit so I got out my special KMART plastic poncho from my purse. The other girls had nice raincoats. I wasn't about to purchase a raincoat just for this trip since it hardly rains in Arizona. The poncho worked great but there's no way I'll be able to get it back into my purse.

Next stop was the Organ Pipes on Mt. Cargil. These rocks are pentagonal reticulated volcanic rock. They're 5 sided & long like a crystal only they're gray rock, not clear crystal. The hill we came upon had a large pile of the rocks. To me it looked like a cemetery that had slid down the hill & all the tombstones had piled up against each other.

Another stop made was Moeraki Beach. It has huge boulders in the sand that are almost perfectly round. Some are cracked & we could see agate type rock in the middle. They are 4 million years old and were made by a small rock or piece of driftwood in which calcium started forming around like a pearl. They have veins which erode from the seawater faster than the rock & they end up cracking into pieces. I sort of sat on one & felt like it was going to get up & crawl out to the sea.

We drove past the Lisbourne House. It was built in the late 1800's. When we went to the supermarket in Port Chalmers. We stopped at the most photographed building in NZ, a train station made of two types of stone. It was very ornate looking. Of course, I had to get a photo too. We went through an art gallery inside & then walked through a farmer's market next door.

We dropped Jo off & met Frank, Nina, Tansy, Ita, Ted, Jacob, Robin, & Isaac for dinner at a Thai restaurant in Dunedin. Then all 10 of us went to the "Lord of the Rings - Return of the King" movie at the Rialto. The tickets cost $13.50 a piece! I guess that's not so bad compared to American dollars. We were near the 1st in line & stood there for an hour. We got very good seats. As packed as the theater was (sold out, 480 people), when the movie started, you could've heard a pin drop. No one, during the 3 hours, got up to go to the bathroom. The New Zealanders are very proud of this movie since it was filmed in their country & was such a big blockbuster.

I had a great day!