Stonehenge

Then on to an absolutely magical place, Stonehenge Aotearoa. It's an adaptation (their word) of Stonehenge in England. Not a replica, but a working model of the heavens, incorporating navigation from the Polynesians, starlore from the Maori and the Celts, and knowledge from the Egyptians, Indus Valley and a couple of other cultures I can't remember at the moment. Just a fabulous thing, built out of concrete and stone and oriented on the sun, moon and stars.

Richard Hall was manning the desk and he was a font of knowledge. We learned later that he's an astrononomer and president of the Phoenix Astronomical Society, the group that planned, implemented and built Stonehenge Aotearoa. Aotearoa, btw, means Land of the Long White Cloud, a reference to the clouds that are always above the mountain range that runs through the center of the country.

We picked up several books that I'm pretty sure we can't get anywhere else. Just fascinating.