We drove up, up, up a mountain above Lake Tekapo to see the observatory at the top. Wonderful views from up there.Then we drove through more mountains to Lake Pukaki which is another glacial blue lake situated in front of the highest mountain in NZ, Mt. Cook (named after the famous Captain). We drove to Mt Cook's Village and went to the most wonderful National Park Visitor's Center. The exhibits were all about the sport of mountain climbing.After a short ...

The flight from Auckland to ChristChurch was a preview of the gorgeous scenery to come. As we flew over to South Island, we saw snowcapped mountains and blue sea. We were very tired on the 4 hour drive to Lake Tekapo, but the scenery was so wonderful that we stayed wide awake. Bob did a good job adjusting to driving on the left. It was only a little bit scary.We saw lots and lots of sheep -- and cute baby lambs. There were also many deer farms; it seems sad that ...

Air New Zealand is an excellent airline. Free movies of your choice on your own screen, wonderful food, pillows and blankets. It was a long flight, but we did get a little sleep. At dinner I asked the server if there was a charge for wine, and he said, "Not at all, fill your boots!" Which we did!What happened to Nov 6? Actually, we didn't have a Nov 6 -- we lost it crossing the dateline. Of course we'll get back a day on our trip home -- in 6 weeks! We...

The adventure begins! We closed up the house, packed the computer, loaded the car and headed to Colorado Springs. After running a few errands, we took Skippy to a park so that he could run and play and we could spend some quality time with the little guy. We went to dinner and then took Skippy to Annie's house. Flynn was at wrestling practice, so we gave Annie all the "care and feeding" instructions. I hope we didn't overwhelm her with TMI.Spent a restful...