Final day...

---

Geo: -43.5316, 172.637

It'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 were everything you might imagine (only free of horse and cow dung), including barn door, brick floors, and bathrooms labeled fillies and stallions. (Why couldn't the men be just colts instead, I asked Sean. What's with the male "stallion" complex?)

After breakfast and the castle tour, we headed down the peninsula and pulled off at a turnoff to Sandfly Bay on a whim. It turned out to be a highlight of the trip--a 2 km. walk through a farmer's sheep pasture (sheep didn't seem to mind us too much) to a completely secluded white-sandy beach. Teal water. Rocks jutting out of the water not unlike Canon Beach. No people. We walked and walked along the sand, running down the dunes, shell-collecting, wetting our feet. After a few minutes, Sean spotted a huge seal bobbing his head aournd in the surf so we ran around behind a dune to hide, and wouldn't you know it, 5 minutes later, that fatty seal waddled right out of the waves on the beach and proceeded to bury his face in the sand and roll around, unaware of our presence. He flipped sand all over himself, yawned, and flipped around some more. No admission to the local aquarium could have afforded such a rare sight! A perfect beach day.

Camped last night in Timaru and headed here this morning. We are both lamenting the approaching end of our journey, but equally anxious to return home as well. We miss our Felix and Picabo, our little house, and of course, our family and friends. Thank you all for your comments along the way. They have not gone unappreciated!

Love and miss, and we'll see you upon our return to the northern hemisphere!

Erin and Sean

---