It's about nine hours of driving to get to Christchurch for our flight to Australia, so we decided to break it into two days. We got up for our morning stop at the local bakery for coffee and pastries and were off ...no real agenda for the drive. We drove through a winery region and stopped for a few apples. Our first stop was in Arrowtown a really quaint little town outside Queenstown. We decided to bypass Queenstown as it is known primarily as a ski-town and probably not our style. After walking the shops, etc and grabbing some brunch, we we off again. The landscape became quite wide open again. It was overcast, so no real photo-opps but just relaxing. Then we started noticing piles of stones along the road...kinda weird. I stopped at a ... read more

A relaxing day of travel really showed the diversity and beauty of the south island's west coast. We reluctantly left Abel Tasman, and head for the west coast. Started out just catching glimpses of the snow caps to the south. Going south for the winter means something different in NZ. We are catching the tail end of the fall colors. Couldn't figure out what was growing on what looked like grape trellis until we came across a roadside stand selling kiwis. It is also interesting to see all the herds of deer. They raise them as a livestock. I didn't appreciate the delicious mutton roast Cheryl prepared for us back in Dannevirke until I began to understand noone hear can afford to eat mutton...it gets exported. You don't see mutton and any restuarant menus, but ... read more

Apologies - currently unable to restore. If you have a backup please edit this entry and save/publish. There is a small possibility that this entry will be restored - only small. When Ruth was 13 yrs old she saw a girls name in the back of some magazine wanting to be a penpal with someone around the world. Ruth said she responded to Cheryl in New Zealand because it would save the hassle of another language. 42 years of exchanging letters, and now they meet face to face. The day started out to be just a traveling day to meet up with Cheryl and her family in a samll town named Dannevirke. It was very overcast so there was not much to see, and made driving as fast as we could the... read more

Little did we know that the trip to the ATL airport was going to be indicative of the long journey ahead. There was a bad accident on the expressway, so with the bad traffic reports, Matt, who graciously agreed to take us to the airport, drove us his favorite back streets he uses when going to his south ATL office....after 24 years, we saw areas of ATL previously unknown to us. It proved to be scenic and we got to the airport in plenty of time...thanks Matt. We knew this trip was going to prove to be an expensive proposition, so we agreed to whatever it took to get the best airfare. We are including several domestic flights in NZ and AU, so the total airline ticket got complicated. It included AtL to Chicago to ... read more

After a great time in Coban, it was time to head to the GC airport to hook up with Ruth and the kids. I wanted to stop at the Biotopo to see if I could hike around and see the national bird, Quetal, but it started to rain so I will just get to GC a couple hours early. Caitlin and Libardo have arranged for us to stay with an aunt and uncle so we can hook up with Ruth and the kids midday Saturday for our trek to the Mayan ruins in Copan Honduras. Tried to call a couple of times with no answer, and was lucky enough to find an internet cafe next door ro allow time to sent my Coban blog. Another uncle had a car, so he graciously offered to pick ... read more