Fellow Quilters,
Hubby and I embarked on a wonderful adventure today. We kissed our beloved Canadian winter goodbye and spent 27 hours to get to Christchurch NZ. We left frigid temperatures yesterday, and arrived in the garden capital of NZ today. Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful hydrangeas and hollyhock in the gardens at the hotel that is our home for the next couple of days. 
We rented bicycles for our trip, and quickly jumped on them this afternoon to alleviate the issues associated with a 27-hour trip (lack of exercise!). NZ is a great country for cyclists, and Christchurch fits right in, with bike lanes on most of the roads. Christchurch is known as the garden city in NZ, for it is lush and green. This is in stark contrast to the view from our airplane window as we travelled from Auckland to Christchurch this morning – it was mostly mountainous, with very little sign of life. We toured the downtown area of Christchurch today, including the areas devastated by the earthquake in 2010, then further damaged by the numerous after-shocks in following months. Here is a picture in Container City
I can only imagine what Christchurch looked like before the massive earthquake. After riding around for a few hours today, the only thing Hubby and I need to get used to is riding on the left side of the road, opposite North American driving practices. While driving the car today, Hubby turned the windshield wipers on several times in an attempt to put the turn signals on. Hopefully in 2 more days, he will be thinking “left” instead of “right”.
Time to call it a day – the jet-lag is setting in. Tomorrow will be another busy day, including a longer bike ride and perhaps a visit to Art of Sewing, the local quilt shop.
Until then, Cheers!
Patti
pattispatchwork-blog.com 
What a wonderful Winter getaway. Long airplane trip, but going to be well worth it. I look forward to seeing photos and hearing your insights. I’ve never been,but this is on my bucket list.
QuiltShopGal
http://www.quiltshopgal.com
PS – I’m finding it really easy to follow you via http://mycreativebloglist.blogspot.com/, although I still follow you via a variety of tools.
Enjoy your time there!! Love the pictures!
Hi Patti -this is not so much a comment as a request. I fell in love with your Misty Pines quilt the first time I saw it, but at the time didn’t have money to buy it. When I had saved the money for the kit the first thing I did was try to buy it, but I can’t find it. Everyone wishes it was available because so many people want it, but I can’t find it anywhere. Do you have any suggestions or do you know who might have the fabric and pattern still for sale? I really, really, want it badly but don’t think I could ever put the fabric like you did, and the pattern really makes the quilt. I know you say this is not your usual type of design, but since it sold so well perhaps you should do some more. Just saying.
Hi Betty, thanks for your comment/request. Misty Pines has been so popular. Good news! Northcott recently designed a collection with my Misty Pines quilt in mind, and asked me to redesign my pattern using the new collection. So… the collection is called Stonehenge Elements, and it is shipping to stores in October. You can see it and my new version of the quilt at http://www.northcott.com. The pattern will include the original lap-size and also a queen-size version and is called Winter Solstice, my original name for the quilt. The pattern will be available from http://www.quiltwoman.com, or from shops that kit the quilt.