Home Again

I am home safe and sound, and while we had a wonderful time traveling to California, The Cook Islands, and New Zealand; there's no place quite like home. Our last day in NZ was very nice. We had a bit of driving from Tekapo to Christchurch but with Christchurch being the largest city on the south island the road into Christchurch was wide and we even crossed a few two lane bridges (a rarity in NZ). I know I mentioned in a previous post that there's no freeway system but I don't think I mentioned that there are very very few traffic lights. In our 10 days of extreme driving we saw perhaps 4 traffic light but lots of roundabouts/traffic circles. We really wanted to spend time at the Botanical Garden in Christchurch so once we got into the city and found our way there that's how we spent the majority of our last day in NZ. The Botanic garden is lovely especially the roses and the hydrangeas. After lunch and touring the gardens we had a couple errands and then it was off to the airport for the first of three flights. We arrived into LAX around 2:00 PM and took off for MPS at 6:15. I finished the second travel book "Push" whew was that ever a tragic tale. I must admit to caring more about the fictional character Precious Jones than I did about the real life Welsh siblings "The Kids Are All Right." Well, it's very late here 3:00 AM and since I didn't sleep much on the 12 hour flight from NZ to LAX or the LAX to MSP flight I think I had better shut my eyes and try to rest.

John and I compiled a list of 10 Magical Moments over the past three weeks:

1.Snorkeling
2,Milford Sound
3.Cook Island Christian Church (singing)
4.Abel Tasman National Park
5.Lunch at Sonja's
6.Kikoura dusky dolphins, whales, seals
7.Fox Glacier
8.Dinner at Cafe La Dolce Vita (lousy food, good wine, much laughter)
9.Christchurch Botanical Gardens
10. Trip to the swimming hole with the Murphy's

+honorable mention Dave "the coconut man"

The three photos were taken on our last day. The girls appeared to be on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens, we thought their uniforms were so cool. Field of sheep, rose. click to enlarge