P.S.

Nick T-good luck with the poker, hope to see you soon
Ali/Hil-the New Zealand accent is nothing like the one yall practiced, nice try though
Curtis-how's school?
Nick-how's it being the only child/Explorers
Janelle/Scott (but mainly scott)- You oughta be jealous of the mntbiking. THanks for everything
Shaun-IT IS like the Land Before Time
Daniela-the beard is on its way, and beautiful..and youll like it
Surprise C.F.-(you know who you are)-we collected better sea shells than you
El Jefe-camow from g -miss you from a
all others- cheers
Mom/Dad (Both sets)- we are safe, filled with good food,good wine, bad beer and great memories. Love you

summary in short...

-from Queenstown we headed to the West Coast to Fox Glacier.
-Hiked up the Fox Glacier
-Drove Fox Glacier to Picton, ferry from Picton to Wellington, Wellington to Rotorua. STRAIGHT...(blagh)
-Went to some hot springs while the boys went Luging
-Rotorua to Hot Water Beach/Cathedral Cove
-Cathedral Cove to Auckland, dropped off boys at midnight, then drove to Beachlands
-Slept in car for first time in Beachlands
-Went to Duders beach and wine tasting at Twilight
-Twilight manager offered her shower and laundry, we chose to only use shower...we then shared a glass of wine with her and her husband. Joy (the manager) opened a bottle of Pinot Gris. Earlier that day while tasting, Adair mentioned it was her favorite-How nice of her to remember and open a whole bottle for us.
-Second night in car
-Drove back to Coromandel (Cathedral cove etc), met Kiri and Ross
-Stayed with Kiri Ross and son Cory on farm
-Milked cows
-Ate fresh lamb (slaughtered that day, on site, which Kiri and Ross raised themselves)
-Stayed two nights on farm
-More wine tasting (Its free out here)
-Went up to Coromandel Peninsula, all dirt roads, Ladybird didn't see pavement for three days
-Back to Whitianga (that's where Kiri's farm is)
-Kayak
-Off to Napier sooner or later
much love

pictures say enough, words later

pictures finally

photos take so long to upload

queenstown

We left Christchurch...in my opinion the town was not very exciting. Except for the (and I correct myself) Adrenaline Forest. It was a ropes course with six different stages, each progressively higher and more difficult. Only Jeremy and I made it to the last one. Our challenges were 20 meters up in the trees, and the zip-lines were fast. After that, we celebrated our achievements with a few ((??)) beers and hit the road again. We are now in Queenstown. On the drive I must have forgot to gas up because we coasted down the mountain on fumes and barely got away without having to push the darn wagon. The town is beautiful, others say it reminds them of Tahoe. We are staying with some friends on a house that overlooks the lake. We might be here a while because of all the activities. Thomas and Jeremy are going skydiving soon (Adair and I will pass, once is enough). Then they have bungy-jumping and the shotover swing (much like a bungy but a swing, not a straight drop). The four of us are going luging again and then later we are headed to the river for some white water rafting...It will be Adair's first time. Then we have a threeday tramp, cliff diving, wakeboarding, mountain biking for myself, as well as relaxing and sleeping lake-side. After all that, we are thinking of heading to Milford Sound.

on the road

Where did we leave off...Waitomo Caves?? Home of the ever so romantic 'shiny shit.' The four of us thoroughly enjoyed visiting the caves. The glow worms are incredible to see. But as any business runs, we were unable to use our own cameras to take photos so yall will have to wait to see the cave shots. Our tour guide was hilarious (as well as the other couple that joined us). We got in our wetsuits, helmets, and gumboots and headed into the bush. We climbed down a slender hole into a pitch black cave. It was romantic for the two of us to lay in the rafts and float under the glow worms. The mood was then interrupted by a biology lesson about the worms. Here is a short version....They are not worms, they are maggots. They do not glow themselves, it is their sh*t. As youngens, they only eat, then they blossom into beautiful 'mosquitos on steriods' and 'shag' until they are eaten by their young...It was still an amazing sight. After the caves we booked it to New Plymouth, endured a wind storm, and headed further south. We skipped Wellington-it was a city, and who wants to stay in a city-and took the 2:30am ferry to Picton. Once on the South Island, we slept outside a gas station (we were out of petrol and the stations were closed), only to wake up and find out we were less than a kilometre from the 24hour stations (we blame thomas for that one). We then proceeded to skip Blunheim where we wanted to go wine tasting because of the poor weather. We headed to Abel Tasman. It was the right choice. It was beautiful, warm, and we had the beaches all to ourselves. We went on four hour hike up in A.T.Nat'l Forest to a little beach. We paddled back on kayaks making stops at other small coves and enjoying the likes of seals and birds back to our starting point. We have since left Abel Tasman (much to my dismay) and are now in Christchurch. We plan on heading into the bush today to experience something called "the Adventure Forest." ......

hope all is well.
We will upload pictures soon.
With love.