Today, instead of crafting or cooking, I am writing about travel. DH and I normally take a trip this time of the year, both to escape some of the cold of the Canadian prairie winter but also it is a condition of my day job. I work for a company that is busy in the summer but very slow in the winter, an ideal time to take a break.
Visiting New Zealand has been a life long dream of mine. We decided that now was the time. Our trip started in Auckland which is a very beautiful city and we are travelling south from there on a cruise. Auckland is very clean, very pretty and very friendly. We had only an overnight there but really enjoyed the harbour area where we stayed. On our next stop we took a tour to Te Puia to visit the Maori cultural centre. We were treated to a welcoming ceremony and a show that included the Haka. It was a fabulous experience.
We have moved on since and have seen how really beautiful this country is; clean, lovely scenery and very friendly people. So far it has been a perfect vacation.
Now we all know the real reason that I felt compelled to visit this part of the world, wool (or wool and possum which is gorgeous)! DH is a great enabler and has asked at each stop for a wool shop for me. Most downtown areas, like cities at home, don’t have such a thing and our tours have taken us out of the port to the countryside. I find that cities are much the same all over the world so the country tours seem to tell a better story of the local culture.
We have been holed up in Dunedin for two nights to wait out a storm that rolled in off of the Antarctic so had a little extra shopping time. Low and behold there is a yarn shop downtown here. Knit World is just that! They had a great selection of the merino, possum blend that I have been lusting for and the lady in the store was so friendly and welcoming. I was only going to buy a couple of souvenir hanks but, DH, the lovely man, insisted that I buy “enough to make something nice” and I ended up with more than I intended, lucky me!
This yarn is truly beautiful. The fibre is soft and has a lovely halo, perfect for warm clothing for the winter. I learned that possum is an extremely warm and light fibre with hollow core which allows it to be such a great insulator. I am in crafters heaven! Now which one do I work with first?
Well I never knew possum yarn was a thing! I’ll have to see if I can find some when I go back to NZ next year.
Aren’t they just the friendliest people ever, I love it there
It truly is a lovely and welcoming country. The possum hair is blended with merino wool and is beautiful and soft. I bought it at a shop called Knit World; they do online sales as well.