Extras and keyrings

Addendum/Appendix/Extras

Not many people were previously allowed to know that I collect keyrings, but I think it may have slipped out once or twice during the previous few chapters of the New Zealand blog. Now the fact that I am a copoclephile is out in the open, I figured I might as well start showing them off.

Just for completeness, for those aspects of our holiday that didn't produce keyrings, I have added one or two pictures of tickets/brochures and so on which were kept as alternative souvenirs.

The Auckland Skytower keyring on the cover of the rather tacky photo-souvenir they sell you.

A lovely wooden Maori carving as a memento of our trip to the Auckland War Memorial museum and cultural show

This is unusual for me, I rarely buy keyrings that don't include the name of the place I want them to act as a reminder of. 

Sealife keyring

I made an effort to buy different styles of keyrings - there's nothing worse than a series of the same keyrings just with different place names on them!

Tickets and daily programme for the Auckland Museum

Ticket for Auckland Harbour cruise

Russell keyring and Dolphin Encounter brochure

Keyring from Paihia in Bay of Islands

Keyring and ticket from Te Puia at Rotorua

Keyring with a photo of the beautiful Champagne Pool at Wai-O-Tapu, Rotorua

A very badly taken photo of my glow-in-the-dark Waitomo Glowworm cave keyring

Hobbiton collection

OK, so sometimes there are really special places that deserve more than one memento, and Hobbiton was certainly such a place. The lovely fridge magnet hairy feet actually came from the Weta workshop. Appropriate that the Green Dragon keyring is a bottle opener, I think.

No keyrings for our Lake Taupo boat trip

Lovely Art Deco Napier

Zealandia

No keyrings with birds on that had the name Zealandia on, so I bought this one. I also had to buy one of this lovely swamphen as it was one of my favourite New Zealand birds.

Lovely cute swamphen

Wellington Cable car tickets

Tickets for the Thunderbirds tour at Weta workshop

Weta workshop postcards and keyrings

Te papa

The Te Papa museum building is beautiful and a fitting design for the keyring I chose to represent the 2 visits we made. They also had keyings for some of the specific exhibitions, but this was my favourite.

OK, even the InterIslander ferry has it's own keyring! 

Placed it on a map of the general area of the crossing route from Wellington to Picton.

Kahu kayaks in Abel Tasman National Park have no keyrings; I did get a T-shirt though!

Whale watching specific keyring bought in Kaikoura

The obligatory kiwi keyring from the Franz Josef wildlife centre with the fewest animals ever

The Milford Sound trip started and ended at a building surprisingly devoid of shopping opportunities. I've included the Go Orange tickets and 'fush & chups' voucher alongside a somewhat Kiwi-themed lanyard I also bought myself!

The Royal Albatross centre

Lovely blue penguin

Blue penguin, blue penguin, so cute I put it in twice

Obviously no opportunity on Mount Cook for a keyring, but I picked up a lovely brochure!

We didn't pick up any brochures in Hanmer Springs (home of this fantastic chiropractor - I especially love the ferny spine), so I had to photograph my lovely autumnal picture keyring on the Lonely Planet guidebook page for the town. You may notice the crazy golf score-cards, but as this as the one I lost, I've carefully hidden the score part!

Akaroa on the beautiful Banks peninsula

There a lovely dolphin swimming-specific keyring, but I also briought home a Hector's dolphin and my "I helped save the Hector's dolphin" wristband.

Of course airports have their own keyrings, why wouldn't they!

It's fair to say that my baggage was heavier on the way home than on the way there, and I have a nice bowlful of keyrings sitting in the dining room, waiting for a more permanent and creative home. More than likely, they'll end up hung on my cork board (like recent other additions to the collection), but at least they've had a limited public airing and their own 15 minutes of fame.  

PS I'm beginning to think perhaps I should be more, er, collectorly about this, and may even resort to counting them all one day soon lol