Please forgive the much overdo and inadequate blogpost on our memorable experience of New Zealand. Recognizing my shortcomings in doing our trip justice, I write this to merely go on record to capture my impressions and share some photos (see my facebook albums).

The first humans to settle New Zealand - the Maori, migrating from Polynesia over 700 years ago - named their new land Aotearoa -" land of the long white cloud". There can be no mystery why. I spent five and a half weeks in this (two) island nation and was granted a mere handful of days that featured sun. But in wild New Zealand, where one can experience all four seasons in one day, we learned that she is equally striking in a drizzle or a downpour (some claim more so), and despite gloomy weather, this is sure to go down as one of our best trips ever. With us largely off the internet-grid this past year, we whole-heartedly thank Ann and Nick, David's sister and brother-in-law, who did the detailed planning for our joint multi-week exploration of the South Island. And what an exploration it was.

Sure, sailing nearly halfway around the globe this year certainly has made for memorable "adventure travel", but this excursion - at last - felt like VACATION! I was finally traveling off the boat and blessed with comfortable lodging, long, hot showers (and even baths!), daily hikes, laundry facilities on demand, and meals cooked and cleaned up by others. I didn't even mind the 7 beds, 3 rental cars and 2 plane rides necessary to accomplish our ambitious itinerary. Nor the need for dressing in layers or raincoats or clunky hikers, which was actually a refreshing break from a solid year of sweating in the Tropics. Frankly, just being in a car was an incredible treat, even if it meant riding on the "wrong" side of the curvy, narrow, shoulderless, rain-slickened, mountainous roads (which were both challenging and nauseating enough to warrant an all 8-eyes-forward, team approach to driving). It was all perfect. Craggy, sea-sprayed, seal-dotted rocky coasts, majestic snow-dusted mountains, verdant sheep-packed pastures, dense ferny "Middle Earth" forests, forging rivers, turquoise lakes and instantaneous rain-induced waterfalls. All of it perfect. While the terrain is often reminiscent of our own Pacific Northwest, with a national population of only 4.5 million people - equivalent to that of the state of Kentucky - we widely-dispersed tourists gain a sense of having this stunning, unspoiled ("unspoilt" in Kiwi) landscape to our very selves. (Yes, this is a land where there truly are "more sheep than people"). Additionally, because of New Zealand's geographical isolation, it was one of the last land masses to be settled by humans and, as such, has developed a unique biodiversity found nowhere else on the planet. So, even if anchored by our (somewhat) common English language, in remote New Zealand one cannot help but feel FAR AWAY from home: perhaps never more so than standing on the wind-whipped shores at the bottom of the South Island, somewhere below 45 degrees latitude, knowing there was nothing out there between you and Antarctica! Dorothy, you are not in Kansas (or Kentucky) anymore.

Our South Island journey looked like this: Auckland-Dunedin-Otago Peninsula-Catlins Coast-Riverton -Te Anau-Fiordland-Milford Sound-Queenstown-Central Otago - Arrowtown - Nelson-Picton - Marlborough Sound- Blenheim -Kaikoura - Christchurch.....Phew! From the Royal Albatross Centre at the extremes of the Otago Peninsula, to the allure of cold, misty dramatic Milford Sound, to the crazed, bungee-jumping vibrancy of Queenstown, to the long, coastal trek through Abel Tasman National Park, to our leisure wine samplings in Central Otago and famous Marlborough Sound, and finally, to sobering strolls along the slowly rebuilding streets of earthquake-shattered Christchurch - we ate, we drank, we hiked, we drove, we packed and unpacked. We laughed, and gawked and marveled. We snapped hundreds of photos in a feeble attempt to capture and share our visual delight. Along the way we had the pleasure of meeting entertaining, quirky innkeepers, free and easy backpackers, relaxed, friendly Kiwis proud of their country and eager to help, and dozens of young adults (mostly UKer's) here on temporary visas striving to balance work with travel while awaiting a crack at citizenship. Though this Floridian hailing from the Sunshine State could never, over the long haul, stand the gloom of this high-latitude living, it is nonetheless easy to see how the beauty and wide-open opportunity of New Zealand draw so many each year in the hopes of making this their new home.

Our final days in New Zealand found us saying goodbye to Ann and Nick and returning to Andiamo anchored up in the equally beautiful Bay of Islands in the North Island - her resting place through the cyclone season. Eric will live aboard and serve as boat caretaker as David and I return to Naples over the coming months. Unfortunately, in our final days, the dreary, rainy weather persisted, damping our plans to visit famous 90-mile beach and swanky Waiheke Island, leaving me wishing we had seen more of this compelling Northland. Yet, between breaks in patching leaky windows, securing the boat, endless sessions in the laundromat and the stress of packing to finally head home, we did managed quick jaunts to the historic towns of Russell and Kerikeri as well as strolls around holiday-oriented, seaside Paihia. With fingers-crossed, we also drove Eric's newly purchased $1000 car (yes, it is as grungy as you would imagine) to see the ancient, giant Kaori trees; we cooked up copious amounts of green-lipped mussels in a garlic-wine sauce; and we had a bittersweet, final potluck on the dock with our growing collection of sailing friends. In closure, we had a chance to meet some of Eric's new NZ friends, both locals and others - like him - from overseas here for a stint. Yes, my sun-deprived body gladly departed Andiamo eager to return home to family, friends and warmth, but after an awesome stay in wild New Zealand, I was deeply comforted and just a tad jealous to now know firsthand that Eric was sure to have an amazing next 4 months as a temporary Kiwi.