Brief and to the point. Left Wanaka later than planned. Stopped at a pharmacy to pick up flu medication. Stopped at Puzzle World just outside of town. Then on to Queenstown for just a brief tour and visit with a friend of Marcos (we’ll be back in Queenstown for New Year’s). Leave Queenstown early afternoon for Te Anau, our base camp before our onward march to Milford Sound. The drive from Qtown to Te Anau reminded me of the landscape around Eugene along the I-5 corridor (dry hay fields surrounded by rolling hills). Te Anau is on a lake of the [View Full Entry]

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Lots of driving these days. I could write and write and write but would be unable to satisfactorily describe what we did and saw in any reasonable amount of time. To be honest I just want to post a few photos. I’ve seen glaciers and glacier valleys, but never a glacier quite like Fox. The glacier brings together ice/snow and heat/rain - a glacier in a rainforest. We tramped in the rain for nearly three hours. Up narrow cliff face trails and down loose gravel/stone paths and finally onto the ice. The ice was hundreds of feet thick and an ever-changing [View Full Entry]

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Work has been keeping me very busy so I’ll keep this pretty simple. We did lots of driving and the stomach flu that a couple of us picked up from the Chinese restaurant (remember the woman dressed in the Pokemon shirt and was sneezing in the kitchen) set in. Some of us toured a brewery in Greymouth while the others explored the biggest city on the west coast (but it can’t be any bigger than Astoria, OR a town it shares many similarities with). We just had to stop at The Warehouse (Wal-Mart equivalent) to satisfy a shopping urge (the car [View Full Entry]

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The morning of the 26th we departed Nelson and headed north to Abel Tasman for a two day kayaking expedition. Our clan had to be the sales person’s worst nightmare. We had him price out every possible option for our trip. He’d give us a few options, we’d huddle and then call him back over and ask if we could take part of one option combine with the anther two and then twist in some other extras. I’m certain he was glad to see us off on our way. We waited a hippy five minutes for our water taxi, i.e. five [View Full Entry]

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From Picton we took the Queen Charlotte drive towards Nelson. The winding narrow road followed the blue water bays and coves of the sound. The coastal road eventually gave way to a wide open valley fields and the forested lowland of rolling hills. In all it was a two or so hour drive to Nelson, our base of operation for the Christmas shuttered period. Nelson, a highly touristed town reportedly has the most days of sunshine in NZ. We were not disappointed during our two days in town…. Perfect weather! We arrived the day before Christmas and thought that a $5 [View Full Entry]

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After nearly a full week of sleeping in the same city I’m ready to write about my travel experiences in the south island. Up to this point I couldn’t find the inspiration to get the writing juices flowing. I believed that the thought of writing about my experience would bring to a close my south island road trip that I enjoyed immensely. Then late last nigh or perhaps it was early this morning that the mental block was breached. A combination of rum and Coke, the lights of Buggy Wonderland (anyone in Auckland will know what I’m talking about), or maybe [View Full Entry]

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Am I crazy or what? First a Mo now a Marathon (Rotorua). I’ve been going to the gym now for seven weeks, six times a week running on the treadmill / elliptical machine for 40 to 60 minutes a day. I’ve had a desire to run a marathon for a couple of years but on Sunday I fell off the fence and found myself in the mind set of a long distance runner. I officially started my training today (Monday) by this weekend I will have my training / diet schedule plan complete and enacted. I have just over five [View Full Entry]

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Please Read! For those of you that have not been keyed in for the last four weeks I’ve been growing a mustache for Movember, men’s health month. All the while I’ve been raising funds for the health charity. To date I have raised $104 and change. I have two more days to go and I think I may be giving the Kiwi participants a run for their money. If I win, the professional shave is paid for by the company I work for. Help me change the face of men’s health by sponsoring my mo and show my Kiwi coworkers [View Full Entry]

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I stumbled upon the Christmas parade in Auckland today. The weather was too hot to hear jiggle bells and other Christmas tunes, it’s just not right. Santa was in shorts, shades and jandals (sandals). Send some snow my way if you can. [View Full Entry]

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What a glorious day to watch the ponies at the Ellerslie Racecourse. The weather was ideal, 75 degrees, blue sky, white clouds, and a very slight breeze coming from the direction of the track. Ladies dressed in racetrack fashion (not NASCAR fashion), feathers, big hats, beads and pearls and stilettos that kept sinking into the soft turf. Men donned their suits, blazers or Italian fashion. I never imagined that a day at the races could be so enjoyable, but it was, we had an awesome time. As sporting events go I cannot imagine a better way to spend three or four [View Full Entry]

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