We’ve started picking through and uploading the 1500+ photos we took in NZ.

The first couple days are up (as of Wednesday June 10); check back every couple of days until all the pics are loaded.

Next year’s trip criteria are good food + strong dollar. Argentina is currently in the top spot. Suggestions?

Thanks for following along at home.

And of course, we’re now feeling better.

It’s been an excellent trip.  Lots has been learned.  Over 1500 photos have been taken (no joke).  And we have many interesting stories in tow.

Once I get home and nestled into the warm, comforting embrace of my home’s WiFi connection, I will be uploading more photos.

MANY more photos.

Hotel Internet access on this trip has been rife with limitations and connection issues.  So we’ve only been able to upload smallish batches of photos.

When we get home, we’ll likely do a big recap post.  The Director’s Cut, if you will.  Previously deleted scenes from our wanderings in the SoHem.  It’ll be an epic hoot.  You’ll learn about how many mussels Steve actually ate on this trip, what bird looks like a golf ball with wings, and what one does when trying to light a cigar in “windy welly” when your lighter runs out of fluid.

It’s in the details…

It’s currently around 6AM.  We board a plane to Auckland around noonish, and then at 7:30PM local time we board our plane headed for LA.

Ready to come home to summer, my kitchen, and familiar faces.  See some of you soon…

This buff guy is swaying in the breeze on the waterfront in Wellington Harbor. Er, harbour.

Click on his body to see more pics from Friday’s wanderings.

We’re relieved to be staying in one place for a few days. (F: Boy howdy.  I don’t think either of us realized how much energy we were expending on traveling around NZ until we, well, stopped.  Phew.)  Our 10th floor room overlooks the Wellington harbor and town centre. Felicia woke up around 5 Friday morning  (F: I hate that.) and I nodded off and on until 7, just before the sun came up over the harbor.

We’re off the south island and in Wellington, which is at the south end of the north island. Back from dinner. Across from a massage parlor. We’ve reserved spots for 10 a.m.

Yesterday, on our way to Nelson, a truck going the other way kicked a rock into our windshield and left an 8″ spider web. This morning, we dropped off the car at the Apex center near the car ferry in Picton and got slapped with a $300 charge. When we protested, the agent said, “Well, we’re not going to pay for it. It’s not our fault.”

Oh. Good to have that settled.

Nonetheless, the 20 mile drive from Nelson to Picton was one of the most picturesque we’ve had. We’ll load some pics tomorrow – just too tired tonight, now that we’ve decided on a major change to our very loose itinerary.

Rather than drive the length of the north island over 3 days, we’re staying in Wellington. We’ve had too much time in the car and too little in any one place. We’ve seen so much, but learned so little. That’ll change as we spend Thursday and Friday in and around Wellington, the beehive of government. The land of zoos. From the bay, it looks like a small San Francisco.

We’ve booked a flight from Wellington to Auckland on Saturday, a few hours before our plane to LA departs.

Good night. Oh, Hercules sends his best.

F: So after a great dinner, a long soak, and a good night’s sleep, Steve and I decided that today was going to be great.  A few days of long driving, runny noses, sore throats, and body aches made us long for those early halcyon days of the trip when everything was sunshine, gumdrops, and pretty flowers.

Here’s a funny thing about NZ.  There are maps for everything.  They have maps for local cities, local restaurants, and in the case of Blenheim, heart of NZ Sauvingnon Blanc region, they have maps of wineries.

We have since discovered that “map”  here is actually an acronym for Mostly Approximate Places.

So it was with some minor trepidation that we went out today with “map” in hand, ready to give some of the Marlborough region’s finest a good sipping.  But first things first…

SJ: The wind woke us up on the 8th floor at 2 a.m. Sunday. They’re not good at insulating windows here, but do provide ample bed covers. That didn’t much help the marathoners who began running below us before 7 a.m. We could see puffs of vapor from their mouths with every two or three steps. Good to be upstairs, even if a little drafty. As I researched that night’s stay, I remembered I’d prepaid for breakfast. At ten til ten, room service brought us eggs benedict (mine with salmon; hers with spinach), and we left a short while later on a sad note.

We’ve decided to blow off Christchurch a bit. We’re both too sick to do the walkabout we’d originally intended and the brief time we did go walkabout last night, we both decided we’d seen enough. The Avon River is a little canal. The Christ Church that the city is founded on is big and stony. And there’s plenty of touristy shopping to be had. The later doesn’t hold much charm for us so we’re moving on to Blenheim. That and this sick thing makes walking around in the super cold windy weather none too appealing.  Hopefully we’ll be able to taste the wine we intend to try when we reach Marlborough.

In the meantime, here are some highlights from yesterday’s Big Drive up the south island’s interior. Catch ya later.

Steve’s getting better. I’m about mid-cycle on this pox we’ve contracted. We’re calling it sheep flu. So…here are some sheep. Only a few though. We’ve seen probably close to a few million on our trek across the south island’s interior.

Fel: Me thinks we have some catching up to do. Day Four started off well enough with a DELIGHTFUL breakfast at Halo, a little cafe on Camp Street in Queenstown.  They even made Herc his own cup of “flat white” (coffee with hot milk stirred in).  He’s so charismatic.  They really loved him.  Pics later.  I’m currently uploading a small batch of pics from today’s (Day Five) adventures and this little coin-op Internet terminal is choking on the bandwidth.  I’m hoping Christchurch has some tolerable WiFi available.

So breakfast.  Then driving to Te Anau.  Steve was feelin’ mighty sluggish at this point and I was  showing symptoms.  But we’re strong and brave!  So we booked a night time cruise to the gloworm caves…