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Published: September 26th 2010
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Hiya everybody!! It's hard to believe it, but in less than three weeks our adventure in New Zealand will be drawing to a close. To everyone wondering when we're coming home, we now have an official return date! We'll be spending six weeks between Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand before departing from Bangkok on December 1st. We have a full days' layover in Seoul, South Korea (going to try to sneak out of the airport and see the city if possible!) before flying to Seattle for three days to visit some friends. Then, on Sunday, December 5th, we will be touching down in good ol' West Palm Beach, having spent just shy of 14 months away from home. A wise friend told us it would go fast...but we had no idea how right she was!! It feels like we just got here, and now it's time to uproot and start all over again...again!
Nothing too terribly exciting to report other than that. We've had some massive winter storms here - it rained/snowed for about ten straight days, even in town, so that was pretty exciting. One of the more "blizzardy" days (no wisecracks from you Canadians!) fell on the night of
our "Eighties" Party, where we invited about thirty of our friends over in full eighties attire to play Twister, dance to some Michael Jackson, and try a shot of homemade chili tequila and flaming absinthe. A good time was had by all, and the costumes...well, the pictures shall tell the tale!
Yesterday was the first day it hadn't rained in nearly two weeks, so up the mountain we went to about five feet of fresh powder...it's gonna be a great week! We're using up all our paid vacation time before we leave (because...why not?)...these Kiwis get six weeks of paid holiday every year, can you imagine such a thing?? So we're hoping for some decent weather and the chance to squeeze in all the snowboarding we possibly can before returning home to (sigh) the tropics. On a funny note, last week I picked up a kid hitchhiking down the mountain who turned out to be a high school student from Iowa (of all places) on an exchange program here for his senior year. The crazy thing is that he'll turn eighteen here and get to go out to all the local pubs, but then he'll go home and won't
be able to drink for another three years. Poor guy - ha!
In case anyone was wondering, the massive 7.1 earthquake that struck Christchurch hit only a few days after our return to Queenstown. A few of our friends claimed to feel the rumble here, but we slept right through it. CHCH is still rocking with aftershocks every day, 4 and 5-pointers on the Richter scale. Our flight to Singapore leaves from there in under three weeks, so we'll see what the city looks like when we arrive! Will catch you guys probably one more time before we leave on October 15th...we're going to try and take the camera up the mountain (actually up the lifts) on a sunny day and catch some action shots so you can see our progress! Until next time, love and miss you all and we'll be seeing you soon...
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Joe Smuin
non-member comment
Why ducks don't sink!
It used to be something of a local joke/truism in certain rural areas that the reason geese/ducks don't sink is because they have very tight rubberbands around their rear-ends to ensure against leaks developing. In this case, by the looks of that water and its probable temperature, I'd have to say that they are darned near frozen shut instead. That looks a lot like typical Seattle country cold weather.