hither and thither

Everyone we meet here is aghast that we only have 3 weeks here. People quit their jobs, take unpaid leave, get work visas, or do whatever else they have to in order to spend significant time in New Zealand. Many people from the Commonwealth (Irish & Canadian, that we've met so far) do a one or two year world-wide tour (it's a cool thing they work out with the airlines where they'll spend time in South America, Australia, Asia, Africa) and New Zealand is one of their stops. We try to explain that 3 weeks is a looonnng vacation in the U.S. but I don't think they're all that sympathetic to the Midwest work ethic! :)

Well, all 7 of us have regrouped a bit over the last few days. We had ferry tickets to cross from South Island to North Island today (Sunday), so we all ended up at Abel Tasman National Park on Friday night/Saturday because it's fairly close to the ferry departure point.





6 of us (Patrick decided the appeals of the open road, a half tank of gas, and a beautiful "alone" day were a superior way to regroup himself) decided to make a day of it and did a combination kayaking/hiking/sailing day. It was delicious. We started off with kayaking. It was in tandem kayaks, which some of us had to reconcile ourselves to a bit, but we had a lovely paddle of 2 miles or so in the Tasman Sea. We got in a quick, cold swim before they fed us a lovely little lunch. The hike was up a lot and then down a lot, but the view in the middle was fantastic, and then the sail was great fun. The wind was choppy and came off the valley in many directions, so it technically didn't end up being much of a sail, but the world was beautiful from that vantage point. The captain stopped twice so some of us could jump in the ocean for a while. The water was STILL cold but it was exhilarating! The second time only Serena and Ben were brave enough to venture out of their warm clothes (again!) to explore Split Apple Rock.

We ended up rejoining Patrick and eating Thai food (yum!) and then going our separate ways until today, when we met up for the ferry ride. That was three hours of drowsy lovliness. I think both groups are still trying to figure out how to maximize this last week in this too-big-and-beautiful-for-the-small-time-we-have place. Upon reaching Wellington, we wandered around the "beehive" (Wellington is the capital of NZ, and the beehive is the parliament buildings), then rode up a cable car to an outstandinging look at the city, and then finished up by meandering back down the hill through the botanic gardens. Wellington is a great town. Our groups ate at McDonald's (much to Tom's delight and Patrick's disgust!), then split for the night. We'll see if we end up meeting up again before we head back on Sunday.

Speaking of the two groups: I think I'm going to go back put a * in front of every post from the camper van (Terry, Serena, & Rachel) and an ~ in front of every post from the other group (Tom, Patrick, Ben and me). Don't know if that will be less confusing or not, but worth a shot!