New Zealand

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Back in the Good Ol' US of A

Home again, home again...Well, not quite yet
Sorry to those who've been checking, we have been weak about updating.
Everything went well with the end of the trip. We took our time driving back up to Auckland and sold our van to a backpacker from London. All kinds of stories from that whole thing, but it worked out. We took the proceeds and flew into Cairns to visit the great barrier reef. I got PADI certified and we spent a few days on a liveaboard boat diving and snorkelling. After that we hopped on a plane and flew back to Auckland and eventually back to LAX. We are now in San Diego visiting my brother, his wife and our new niece, Annabelle. Back to Columbus this saturday and back to the real world. Time to get a job, find a place to live in Dayton and get our stuff outta storage.
See you all soon.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Still Truckin...

Well, we managed to make it all the way around to Dunedin for the Easter Weekend and got a hotel for a couple nights. Free wireless and it works well if I tuck myself in the corner of the bathroom. So over the last month or so we've driven down the west coast, through Fiordland, down and around the south coast and are starting up the east coast.

The best part of the west coast was probably the Glaciers... although it could have been the 4o hrs we spent in a cow pasture waiting for the rain to stop. From there we headed south to the town of Wanaka through Mt. Aspiring National Park on a very impressive stretch of road. A lot of the pics are from the hike up Mt. Roy giving awesome views of Lake Wanaka and surrounding mountains.

Next, on to Queenstown, a pretty sweet little town known for being the adrenaline sport capital of NZ. Lots of bungee, skydive, jetboat, you name it. We did not partake opting for the comfort of a hotel room for a night. From here it was a few hour drive into Fiordland National Park, a truly unique and amazing place. We ended up spending almost a week checking it out and took a cruise through the infamous Milford Sound. This is also when the sleeping bags came out marking the end of summer. We've had some cold nights, hasn't froze yet but some trees are changing.

We spent several days on the beaches at the bottom of the south with a couple days at Curio Bay trying to swim with Hector's dolphins. Had good weather for it but no luck. We saw plenty but only a couple from the beach. I swam out a few times but with the water in the mid 50s it made it tough to swim for too long even with a wetsuit. We were, however, lucky enough to spot a yellow eyed penguin.

No major problems yet with the van so far. Most every problem has been fixable with either superglue or silicone sealant. Both have worked wonders. We've put on almost 10k and are now pushing 408,000km and going strong. We plan to drive it round trip back to Auckland getting there in a month and a half or so to get it sold. Hope everyone is doing well and we'll see you all in a couple months.