Don't Have a Vegemite Sandwich

All is well but this post is late because I couldn't keep my eyes open after a long hike followed by a heavy Italian dinner. Before we left Te Anau I noticed some Vegemite in the refrigerator at our cottage and decided to have a taste. Quadruple Yuck! Vegemite taste like rotten fish paste mixed with motor oil! It is truly disgusting, no I've never tasted rotten fish paste and motor oil but I imagine it would taste just like Vegemite. We said good bye to the Murphy's and the farm around 10:00 and began our drive West. I drove for the first two hours and felt amazingly comfortable behind the right side wheel. The drive west was pretty easy but boring and the scenery looks very much like the American west with rolling hills and farmland. John drove for the last 3 hours because he was pretty bored. Once we checked into our motor inn like motel in Tekapo we decided to get some exercise after being couped up in the car all day. We hiked to the summit of a mountain over looking Lake Tekapo. The hike was steeper and more difficult than I imagined and 2/3 of the the way up my legs felt like cement blocks. We reached the summit and the view of the turquoise colored lake was magnificent even on a cloudy day. We trekked back down in search of dinner around 6:30. Tekapo is believed to have the cleanest air in the world and the turquoise lake is another big draw to the area so the town attracts loads of hikers and campers and there's a youth hostel just down the road so lots of young people. We decided on Pepe's Italian restaurant. For some reason the restaurant has a ski theme with poster and ski memorabilia decorating the walls. The place was packed so the waitress asked if we would be okay sharing a table with other guests. We joined Anne and Barie for a very enjoyable dinner. Barie and Anne and sisters in-law from the US. Anne is a librarian from Massachusetts and Barie makes custom sails for sailboats on Maryland's eastern shore and she sails. They are staying at the youth hostel despite being in their 60s and that's how they've managed to see so much of NZ on a budget, they seem to be having a blast and talked about their most interesting night when they stayed in a jail converted to a hostel in Christchurch!

Today is our final day in New Zealand. We will leave Tekapo and drive to Christchurch where we plan to visit the Botanical Gardens and have dinner before our 7:00 PM flight to Auckland. From Auckland we will fly to Los Angeles (12 hours). We are departing NZ at 7:00 PM Thursday night and arriving into Minneapolis at 11:00 PM Thursday night. We're on Air New Zealand until LAX to MSP when we switch to Delta/Northwest.