This, certainly, was a fabulous vacation! Certainly the best of my life. Perhaps a trip of a lifetime ( but we hope there will be others just as nice ). It was very unfortunate that I got hurt and we were not able to do the activities we really went there for, but that is life, and it could have been a whole lot worse. We are thankful for that.
The people were so wonderful, the scenery so gorgeous, and we were even still in love with each other at the end of 7 weeks in a small camper! We knew we were a match made in heaven, and we were right! ( Don’t get me wrong, we are human so there were some trying times .)
We also learned a lot about our traveling styles. I would prefer to see less of a country and experience more ( smelling of the roses ). I think I would prefer to stay in an area for a few days at a time and use it as a “base camp”. Slow it down a little. I go pretty hard during everyday life, so when I go on vacation, I don’t want to feel like a participant of “The Amazing Race.” Also, this vacation, to me, seemed a little long. But then again, we still didn’t have enough time to see everything. If it wasn’t so far away, perhaps the answer would be to do it in two stages. Norman, on the other hand, still loves to drive and is not opposed to driving 5 or 6 hours a day to cover wider areas. He is okay with just driving through an area and feel like he has “seen it”. Different agendas.
What made New Zealand such a perfect destination was its vast variety of topography. We enjoyed thousands of miles of coastline, numerous mountain ranges, many of them snow capped, and vast areas of farmland. Some areas were heavily vegetated while others were dry and barren. We saw volcanic regions, glaciers and tropical forests- often in the same day or hike!
Our Travel Blog was an extremely time consuming project. Most nights when we wrote the blog, we were really much too tired to go through the day’s photos and write the script. Finding campsites that offered wireless internet was also a chore.
We would sit there at night, with bloodshot eyes, ( was it the wine, or the sun?) and wonder if anyone was reading this thing. We knew that it would be wonderful to have for ourselves, but it was even better to have heard when we got home, that a lot of you actually cared enough to be reading it!
Norman repelling in Waitomo Caves! His trip highlight!
After being tossed down a hill he is still smiling!
Above: Barefoot is the rage: I could not believe it when this guy jogged past us at the glacier site!His feet are really dirty! And tough!
If we remodel, do you think we can have one of these on St. James Circle?
Our living quarters
Yeah! I can hike again!
The logging trucks were Norman's worst nightmare!
New Zealand or Tuscany?
New Zealand or Tuscany?
Maori Meeting Places. They are still frequently used.
UNIQUE SIGNS
OH NO! 
We found this sign in many different places in New Zealand. This is a poison used to kill off the hundreds of thousands of possum that has had a horrible effect on their forestation. They reproduce so quickly, they don't think they will ever have it under control.
A lot of the farmers, of course, are fighting this practice.
