Andrea: The day of the rugby match has arrived! We left the campsite to return downtown and stay in a hostel (abandoning GEM for the night). The place had a tiny parking lot and we managed to park after 15 minutes of Brie and me barking instructions at poor Vern behind the wheel while a handful of backpackers looked on. The receptionist told us they were full and we'd been upgraded to two double rooms. After a few minutes of deliberation, it was decided that Vern...

Andrea: "My friend arrives today!" is what I was thinking when we woke up at 6:30 to sneak out of our campsite without paying the fees. Actually, I was probably thinking more along the lines of "$@£"! It's 6:30 in the morning!" but I thought I would clean it up to keep the blog family-friendly. Either way, I was super excited to be meeting up with one of my best friends in the world, Brie, for 3 days. She was visiting friends in Australia and we bullied her into...

Vern: When we left South America, we spent a week in Mendoza tasting Malbecs (albeit not using the spittoon once, so 'tasting' may be a bit misleading) and to bid farewell to the South Island we decided a day of wine was in order. (I sense the beginnings of a tradition: before leaving somewhere South - hit the wine. Not sure how we'll fare when we leave South East Asia, but definitely next time we're to depart South Africa it's on). We woke up in the remote litt...

Andrea: Our last day staying with Simon and Kelly and we were finally going out to see the farm! We showered (savoring it as it would be our last one for awhile) and ate breakfast and jumped on the 4-wheeler to take us out to the animals. There wasn't much room and I was afraid of falling off so I piled in the back trailer with the two dogs. The dogs jumped out and started running along the side so it was just me in the trailer, being pulled, with my tongue hangi...

Vern: The rising sun popped out of the ocean, lit up the green slopes and beamed through the east-facing window of Simon and Kelly's farm house. After a quick breakfast we bundled into the car and caught a ride with Kelly out to Mount Cook National Park. Mount Cook is the highest peak in NZ and was one of the many peaks summited by local, Edmund Hillary, before he went on to climb Everest. The Maori name for the mountain is Aoraki which means 'cloud-piercer' and ...