We had a great day on Banks Peninsula.    We started by driving to Barry's Bay so we could visit Barry’s Bay Cheese Company and watch them making cheese the 150 year old "traditional way." There we met a couple, Park and Jill Sims, who used to live in Palmer Lake, CO, when Park taught Physics at the Air Force Academy. They live in England now, and are in NZ with a group of Jaguar owners who shipped their cars here so they could drive around the Sout...

We are surprised at how different the landscape looks this year. When we were here in 2009, it was early spring. It was cool and rainy and very, very green. Now it is exceptionally hot and dry and the hillsides are brown. There are water restrictions and the farmers (and their sheep) are suffering the effects of the drought.   We left Christchurch after a quick stop at The Warehouse because one of us forgot to pack his underwear. The 75 kilometer drive to ...