Geo: -43.5316, 172.637It's now our final full day in New Zealand (sadly!) and likely our last entry. We fly out tomorrow from Christchurch to Auckland around noon and begin our long Saturday of traveling, crossing the international date line to regain the day we lost on the way over. Today we are bumming around Christchurch--just watched some street performers do things with their bodies most people can't--and are headed for a coastal hike shortly. This evening we'll take in a live Maori performance called the Haka at a nature center not far from town. The nature center guarantees the viewing of kiwi birds so alas, our New Zealand experience will be complete! Yesterday was spent on the Otago Peninsula just outside of Dunedin where we slept in the stables of Larnach Castle (highly recommended!). The stables ... read more

Geo: -45.4151, 167.718We've had quite the two-day adventure to share with you all! Yesterday we awoke in Queenstown to glorious sun, breakfasted on fresh eggs from the market, and shopped around the very spendy but very trendy town--a cross between Sun Valley and Jackson Hole, perhaps. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature only climbed. We purchased gondola tickets to ride to the top of the mountain, which afforded a striking view of the Remarkable Mts. (aptly named), blue Lake Wakatipu in a horseshoe shape around the spit of land that is Queenstown, and all the extreme adventure sports you can imagine witnessing in one spot: paragliding, parasailing, bungy jumping, luge riding, sailing, fishing, mountain biking, canyon swinging... You name it, someone was doing it within eyesight. We then jumped on the luge--a ... read more

Geo: -36.8474, 174.766Hello all. We're in Auckland now, and headed out to Christchurch on the south island this afternoon at 4:00, and would you believe it? We found sunshine! Yay! We fled the northland the day before yesterday right in the thick of the storm. Here are some headlines from the local paper that we picked up to show you all: "460 mm of rain in 2 days" (which is the equivalent of about 1 1/2 feet); "Worst rain in 150 years"; "Motel in Haruru Falls floods and slides into ocean" (we were in Haruru Falls, by the way); "Girl nearly drowns"; "Schools closed; Parents have difficulty reconnecting with children." Yikes. The day we left, the highway flooded and closed, severing the northland from the rest of the island so we literally made it out just ... read more

Geo: -35.2821, 174.091It's evening now, about 7:31 PM and my last entry was this morning from Mangonui; I had been attaching more pictures when the power went out due to the rain. Here's how the day progressed: We drove to Cape Reinga--the place we were most looking forward to on this vacation, but especially me... The rain was horizontal and we were geared from head to sandaled-foot in rain gear as we ran down the path toward the much-anticipated lighthouse at the tip of the island. When we were standing right beneath it we could barely see its top for all the fog and we couldn't even hear the waves below for all the wind--driving at us like Mack trucks. So much for the picturesque seam of teal where the two massive bodies of water meet. ... read more