The campground we are staying at has been playing a great classic rock station in the washrooms since we arrived last night. While brushing my teeth before bed, they played "No Sugar Tonight," by the Guess Who. Cool, I thought, as I wondered whether any of the Germans or Japanese on each side of me knew this was a Canadian band. This morning, I walked in to a Neil Young tune. After breakfast it was Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway," and before heading out for the day they played Avril Lavigne!

New Zealand is so much like Canada that I seriously have to shake my head every now and then to convince myself that I am on the far side of the globe. It's as if they took all the best parts of our country - mountains, sea, prairie, ice, snow, lake, city, farm, warm, cold - shrunk it to 10% the original size, and chopped it into two islands. Mind you, they do seem to have gone a bit overboard with the sheep, and I have no idea what vowels they use in the Kiwi alphabet. But all in all, this feels alot like home. They even play "ice" hockey here - although their equivalent sports fascination is, of course, rugby. NOONE pays attention to "American Football." People keep looking at my hat and thinking I'm a Yankees fan. (By the way - three in a row for my Giants!)

I've always regretted not having taken a year off after high school or university to travel the world and experience it through the eyes of a young person. We've met lots of twenty somethings doing that and I still think it's the way to go. Although the instant communications available to today's youth traveller doesn't allow them to get lost the way they might have 30 years ago, I don't think there's any substitute for travel in terms of gaining essential street smarts. I love watching what these young people from around the world eat. Lots of Nutella, eggs and toast, pasta and rice. Oh yes, and beer. The beer in New Zealand is fabulous. While cooking a beef stir fry tonight I was surrounded by a huge Malaysian family. They cook as a family unit and were amazed that I, the man, was cooking by myself. We shared lots of laughs and soon they were surrounding me offering advice on how to cook the asian way. I loved it. Mira was google eyed watching them eat whole fried fish and steamed vegetables with their hands - all the while sharing animated and loving family conversation. Their food smelled so exotic. It was an authentic and spontaneous cultural experience.

A little bit about our life on the road... We have rented a six person camper van. It's a five speed standard diesel that drives like a bus. Even though it's a bit of a fixer upper (and thus cheaper) I love it and look forward to getting behind the wheel every morning! The kids sleep in a double bunk above the front seats that you access with a ladder. Deb and I sleep on a double bunk that folds down from the table. We have a heater, running water, shower, stove, microwave, toilet and grill. It's a blast. We have been driving around from town to town listening to New Zealand's awesome tourism radio. It uses GPS to determine exactly where you are and tell you about the history and sites of the places you are pulling into or passing by. When there's nothing to see (not often), they play great music or offer kiwi language lessons. A "Dairy" in New Zealand is a convenience store by the way. I have no idea what white bait is yet, and don't intend to find out.

There are several different ways to camp in one of these units. The government operates hundreds of campgrounds which are very similar to what we have in Canada. You simply pull in and put your money in an envelope. There are outhouses (pit toilets) but no power, showers or similar facilities. Because they are so cheap, we have been trying to stick to these wherever possible.

Every three or four days we pull into a "Holiday Park." These are like small resorts where you park your van right next to your neighbours. They have hot showers, internet, kitchens, tv and games rooms and some have swimming pools and playgrounds. These are a bit expensive but absolutely necessary to charge the batteries, fill up on water and scrub the dirt off ourselves!

The third option is to "Freedom Camp," which mans simply pulling off the road or up alongside a riverbank and making ourselves at home. You can only do this in a self contained vehicle like ours which has a toilet and grey water tank. So far we haven't tried this but are looking forward to the first opportunity. In Canada, this type of "car camping" would be considered wimping out to those accustomed to packing everything in the canoe, kayak or sailboat and heading into the wilderness. It's not wild here, but it is wonderful!

New Zealand is not cheap by any means. Although the Canadian dollar is at an advantage, prices here are about the same as in Canada. "Tours" are fairly rich but also very well done. Tipping is not customary here so the price of meals works out to be about the same. Since arriving, we have visited the Earthquake Centre in Christchurch, the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre at Mount Cook, the Yellow Penguin Reserve on the Otago Peninsula and the Cadbury Chocolate Factory here in Dunedin. Can you guess which one the kids liked best? Truth be told, mom and dad liked it too. The tour gives you an inside view of the chocolate production process, explains the South American origins of chocolate and lets you taste roasted, raw cocoa. There are plenty of tastings and even a chocolate fountain that sports a tonne of flowing milk chocolate! The gift shop was cheap cheap so we have been spoiling ourselves just a bit since the tour.

We are developing a bit of a routine here in New Zealand. Every day we commit to getting to bed early that night. When we pull into our campsite, we usually explore a bit and crack a bottle of wine. Supper is a leisurely affair, after which we normally play cards and read too late into the night. As a result, we sleep in the next morning and start the day off slowly with fresh coffee, poached eggs, toast and fruit. We normally don't pull out until about 11am. Unintentionally, this allows us to stick to another of our travel rules - only one "activity" a day. We normally lave every destination with a list of things we wish we could stay and do. I suppose that's better than feeling like you can't wait to get out of town.

Our stay at the base of Mount Cook was outstanding. This, the tallest mountain in New Zealand (and Australia) was the training ground for Edmund Hillary before he ventured off to bag Everest. There's a great museum dedicated to the man here and lots of alpine culture and charm. It also plays host the the most southerly planetarium in the world. The girls delighted in taking a virtual tour through the universe and struggled, as did we, to come to terms with how insignificant our little planet is in galactic terms. Great for perspective. Like my dad used to say to me in times of seemingly high stress - "one hundred years - all new people!" I enjoyed the 45 minute hike from our campground in Hooker Valley over to the Hermitage Hotel for a southern night sky seminar. I've had my fix of the southern cross now and know how to use it, along with alpha and beta centuri, to find the celestial southern pole. On our last day we did a three hour hike across glacial moraine and suspension bridges to the foot of "working glacier." The scenery was out of this world and, again, we felt mighty small walking in the track of this mammoth that had carved it's retreat in the rock as old as the earth itself. We left a little geo cache in the campground kitchen for the Pontins/Harris', the Schwarz/Culhane's or the Kokelj's - whoever comes through first in the next year.

Today we are in Dunedin, a former gold mining town on the southeast coast of the South Island. This marks the furthest south any of us has ever been or will be for the remainder of our voyage around the world. It's a cosmopolitan university town with lots to offer the visitor. Today we drove a wild, winding seaside road out the Otago Peninsula to a Yellow-eyed penguin reserve. These penguins are the most endangered of their species in the world. The girls were fascinated learning about these fish like birds and the extent to which the local sheep farmers are going to restore their habitat. We ducked through World War I like trenches to get up close to these splendid creatures who are now sitting on eggs due to hatch any time. Unlike other types of penguins, the Yellow Eyed are anti-social and do not live in colonies. We also spotted blue penguins (quite social), sea lions (quire grumpy) and seals by the score. After the tour we cooked up a lunch of pita pizzas in the parking lot before driving the winding road back to town.

Tomorrow we head west to the most visited site on the South Island, Milford Sound. After that we will stop in at the adrenaline capital of New Zealand - Queens Town - the birth place of the bungie jump. Not sure if any of us have the guts to try it, but we may do some rock climbing or rafting. After that we head north to the Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers and, ultimately, Abel Tasman National Park and the red wine mecca of Marlborough.

We dedicated three of our four and a half weeks in New Zealand to the South Island and already we feel behind schedule to make it back to Christchurch in time to catch our flight to Auckland. This is such a popular tourist destination because (a) it is awesome and (b) it's easy. I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would and am savoring every moment. The kids haven't mentioned home sickness since we left the sedentary beach existence on Rarotonga so I assume they are having fun too. In fact I'm sure they are. We have not met as many children on the trip yet as we'd hoped so they have had to rely upon each other for company. They bicker lots, of course, but I can tell they are getting closer. I think they realize what a special experience they are having together. We remind them lots as does everyone they tell their story to.

As for Deb and I, we have held the homesickness in check fairly well. We certainly miss everyone and wish we could connect with family more often. New Zealand does not have great internet infrastructure surprisingly and we have not been able to FaceTime with our parents recently. Time is marching by, however, and it's hard to believe that big parts of this trip that we dreamed about for years are already behind us. We are not even close to being ready to come home yet though. In fact, we feel like we are just hitting our travel stride. Just in time for the culture shock that will be Southeast Asia.

It's been fun emailing with friends who plan to meet up with us in the next few months and trying to coordinate things. It amazes me that we can make these plans from across the world and, without ever having spoken, hop off a plane in New York, Auckland, Calcutta, Istanbul, Zagreb or Nice and have an old friend there waiting and ready to begin an adventure. For those of you still sitting on your wallets, Vietnam, Nepal, South Africa, Greece, Italy and Germany are still open for visits!

Sorry for being so chatty on this post but it's been a while since I've sat at the keyboard. We're doing great down here. Blowing through our budget and putting the miles behind us.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Yanks out there. Still hoping to find somewhere to watch a bit of NFL this week but it's not looking good. Might have to try and figure out cricket. Is that the one we used to play on the back lawn with double sided hammers, coloured balls, and little white wire fences to knock the balls through?