One week down...

And one more to go... We are in Auckland (North Island) now and going to head south for a few days to check out the Pacific Rim of Fire and some volcanic action! The weather on the South Island was cold, about 45F in the day and 32F at night, maybe colder, but here it is a warm 60F and that is with an overcast layer of cloud.

Again, we apologize to all for the massive amount of photos taken. :)

Queenstown

Well, we have made it over 2000 Kilometers and are in Queenstown at the moment. Today we drove from the East Coast down to the Southernmost tip and are now heading North to the West Coast. It is beautiful and we have already taken 1 Gig of photos... we apologize in advance to those of you who will have to sit through them all!

See you all in a few weeks :)

We arrived!

We arrived in New Zealand safe and sound. I only have a few minutes before this internet connection dropps off, but I wanted to let you all know that we are doing well and having a blast!

Bye!

One Quick Cache before we leave...

On Mother's Day Eric, Sheree, Danny, Tonita, Kenny and I decided to do a quick Geocache. This cache was to be Eric & Sheree's 500th (they snuck up on us and passed our number of caches found a few weeks ago!).

We decided that for a 500th cache it needed to be special... dangerous... daring... fun... and out of the ordinary. A simple 1/1 would not do! (For those of you who do not Geocache a "1/1" means difficulty "1" on a scale of 1-5 and terrain "1" also on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the easiest... what we like to call a "Cache and Dash" where we basically can drive right up to the cache and see it from the car!)

Eric found a lovely cache called "Secret Passage to Hogsmeade" and we decided to go for it! In order to find this cache it looked as if we might have to trudge through some murky water, but we figured it hadn't rained in a while so maybe the water would all be gone... we thought wrong.


As we approached the cache we realized that we indeed would be heading into a tunnel full of knee-deep water. Good thing we had all worn old clothes and shoes! We managed to make our way into the tunnel and soon the water level lowered... but the darkness increased! As we began to wonder if this was maybe not one of the smartest things we have done... but if we died at least we would all die together... we found it. We quickly snapped a picture of the cache and headed out, because man, it smelled pretty bad in there.

On our way out we noticed a little bird hanging from the top of the tunnel and then realized... That is not a bird... That is a BAT! We all clung to each other as we tried to duck out of the way of this little bat and finally managed to shoo him outside. I only wish we had a video! If you look really close you can see the bat in the picture...

We are hoping to do many more caches in New Zealand, but hopefully none so adventurous!

New Zealand, Home of Middle-earth

We leave for New Zealand on Friday!!!

About New Zealand:

New Zealand's spectacularly beautiful landscape includes vast mountain chains, steaming volcanoes, sweeping coastlines, deeply indented fiords and lush rainforests.
Comparable in size and/or shape to Great Britain, Colorado or Japan, New Zealand has a population of only 4 million - making it one of the world's least crowded countries. It is a haven for those seeking peace, rejuvenation and relaxation as well as a playground for thrill seekers and adventurers. A temperate climate with relatively small seasonal variation makes it an ideal year-round holiday destination.

Time Difference: New Zealand is one of the first places in the world to see the new day, 12 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Check out the current New Zealand time & date at the top of this page.

Climate: The north of New Zealand is subtropical and the south temperate. The warmest months are December, January and February, and the coldest June, July and August.
In summer, the average maximum temperature ranges between 20-30ºC and in winter between 10-15ºC. You can check on weather conditions in New Zealand on the New Zealand Met Service website.

Autumn- March to May are New Zealand’s autumn months. While temperatures are a little cooler than summer, the weather can be excellent, and it is possible to swim in some places until April. While New Zealand’s native flora is evergreen, there are many introduced deciduous trees. Colourful changing leaves make autumn a scenic delight, especially in regions such as Central Otago and Hawke’s Bay, which are known for their autumn splendour.

We will be bringing our computer so hopefully we will be able to keep everyone up to date on our adventures.