We added a few photos but I believe the image quality is not quite right (blame it on the free software we tried at this Internet cafe!) Please let me know, someone, if you get a chance to email! Yesterday Akhil and I found the most beautiful spot in the country, I think - Glenorchy. It's a town just at the edge of Mt. Aspiring National Park about 40 kms north of Queenstown. The lake, the mountains, the thousands of sheep, birds, and cattle... it was so spectacular it's hard to describe. Photos would be very helpful here... we'll try again soon!

We're heading off to Dunedin this afternoon. One more week in New Zealand, sadly... just when we were getting to feel at home!

Queenstown has knocked us both into the New Zealand fan club - it's surrounded by at least 11 separate mountain ranges and has great cafes and restaurants and a beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu. We're here in the area for the fourth day now - after spending our first here in town and then in Arrowtown, an old gold-era town nearby, before taking off to the infamous Milford Sound in Fiordland. We braved youth hostel culture at its (worst?) in Milford Sound to be able to get up at dawn on Saturday to sea kayak in the sound (which is actually a fiord). We had an encounter with a pair of seals and the fiord was virtually empty except for our group of 16 or so - beautiful place! Here's a photo taken the evening before our kayaking trip:



The roads to get in and out through the mountains though can be a bit harrowing. Over the last few days we've also been hunting for Lord of the Rings shooting locations and took a detour near Te Anau to see the location of the "Fanghorn Forest" this morning. We missed Thanksgiving of course - which is unfortunate! But we're eating well... no worries. Turns out adding beets and cabbage is a common way of dressing up a sandwich. We have a photo of Akhil in the Fanhorn Forest location - here he is - looking much like a hobbit:

A post from Akhil... I'm reading a sign by this computer. It says: "Online discounts for: Bungy, parasailing, skydiving, rafting, 4 wheel driving, jetboating, guided walks". I could add "hiking, biking, camping, tramping, rocket bungy, fly-by-wire, spelunking, kayaking, and beaming yourself to other planets." Ok, so there's lots to do, though I just enjoy the hikes and scenery.

Last night we ate at the Pig and Whistle and I had the greatest burger. The secret seems to be sliced cabbage and beets. Or beetroot as they call it. I wouldn't have thought this would have tasted so good. And then of course bacon - that doesn't hurt. The bacon here tastes a bit more like ham than our bacon does. On this burger, very good. I could talk about food more (maybe the advantages of the New Zealand "flat white" later. For now here's a pic of one from a cafe in Plimmerton. Mmmmm!!!)



Today, after having the stones removed from the brakes of our rental car, (more perhaps on how they pave roads here later, but suffice to say, a great many little stones are involved) we visited some of the film shoot locations for the Lord of the Rings movies. These movies are great, but folks here are unbelievably excited about them. It's a whole new industry here unto itself. Air New Zealand is painting their planes with murals of Liv Tyler, etc. On a hill near Queenstown is a place called Deer Park Heights, where many scences were filmed. (Aragorn fighting wargs, the women and children of Rohan fleeing their kingdom). It was windy something fierce up there - maybe 50 mph? Not exaggerating - hard to stand. Certainly hard to take photos. Or to keep Shannon from flying away. It was obvious that the scenes were filmed there. Strangely, there were also many animals there. Deer, red deer, pig/warthog things in serious need of dental work, highland cattle, goats, himalayan thars (whatever the heck those are), donkeys, ponies and sheep. Of course sheep. There are sheep everywhere (have I mentioned that?) And they were semi-tame and expecting to be fed. Normally, the sheep are, well, sheepish and run away, even from Shannon who seems friendly enough. (Don't ask how we know this). But these sheep ran towards us expecting to be fed. Finally, there's a fake (Korean?) prison built on the top of the hill. It was built for a Disney movie (Rescue) in the '80's. For some reason, they never took it down. So there it sits, a fake prison on the hill. Anyways, a very other-worldly location.

Hi - it's Thursday here but only Wednesday in the U.S. so I suppose we won't say Happy Thanksgiving until tomorrow. No turkey here though. But lots of sheep. As mentioned earlier. (Here's one):



We travelled south from Nelson - the town with the jeweler who made "the ring" as in the LOTR ring - to the glaciers, passing by the rocky coastline that resembled Big Sur through Westport and Greymouth to Hokitika, where we stayed the night. Not much going on there, I have to say, except jade carving. The next major stop was Franz Josef glacier. I don't think I knew what a glacier really was, and had no idea what one would look like. We decided to forego the pricey heli-hiking options and took a five-hour jaunt up to Roberts Point, a viewing point for the Franz Josef. It was a steep, slippery, mossy climb through a rain-foresty area that looked like Yoda's planet. At the end though, there was the glacier - this massive, sort of garish river of ice tumbling off the mountain - very bizarre! We also encountered a kea up there, one of NZ's parrot-like birds, who hung around shrieking at us waiting for some food. I shouldn't mention that I slipped into a muddy puddle on the way back down and partially submerged myself, but I will. Well, it was slippery with all those mossy rocks!

We then proceeded to Fox and stayed overnight - dined in a very oddly metropolitan-style place called the Plateau, then the next day walked around Lake Matheson to view Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman, and then took a short walk to the edge of the Fox glacier - which was smaller-looking than Franz Josef, but you could really see the ice up close.

Now we are here in Queenstown after a VERY LONG drive yesterday through the Haast region. Queenstown, a resort town and jumping off point for the Southern part of the South Island, resembles Bergen (Norway) quite a bit and is a bustling place full of tourists. Dinner at the Pig and Whistle was just like being in a pub in Boston. Our rental car had some "issues" that we just got fixed so tomorrow we're off to Milford Sound.

This is Akhil, giving the basic travel log from an internet cafe in Nelson. From Turangi down to Wellington... Basically very green and covered in sheep, but quite beautiful. Wellington is quite nice, and looks a lot like San Francisco (I know they say this, but it's true!) Stayed in a nice place just north of town in Plimmerton on the water - we could hear the waves crashing onshore from our room. The next day took the ferry across to Picton and stayed the night. Hiked the last leg of the Queen Charlotte track as a day hike on a beautiful sunny day. Then off to Nelson in the car. Windy road along the coastline - more cows, more sheep! Today, we're off to the West Coast to find, amongst other things, seals! Now Shannon will elaborate...

The Queen Charlotte track (they call trails "Tracks" here) was in the Marlborough Sounds - a very picturesque area just off the ferry at Picton. They'll take you by boat to the portion of the track you want to walk - so you get a nice cruise in the sounds that way in addition to your hike. And believe it or not - we ran into some friends from Boston in Picton! Very very small world (and even smaller country).

Here we are in Hokitika on the South Island's west coast, after a tiring day on the road:

It's true what they say: there sure are a lot of sheep.

We hiked the Tongariro Crossing yesterday and wow, it was steep! I am happy to say I survived - even though there were plenty of people over the age of 50 doing this 11-mile trek too, breezing by me the entire way, even on the ascent portion (!). It was a little bit like a roadrace, with more than 100 others on the trail at the same time, but we enjoyed the views. Last night we stayed in Turangi and this morning we drove down to the Kapiti Coast where we are now, by a beach at a bookstore with Internet access. Tomorrow will be dedicated to visiting Wellington. And the day will finish with our crossing by ferry to the South Island, which we hear is the REAL attraction. Here's me on the Tongariro track:

Yes, we're here - and it's already Wednesday evening! The flight was tolerable - and we even got some sleep. Akhil's cousin Yatin picked us up from the Auckland airport to take us to his home northwest of the city in Rodney, where we met his wife Shan, sons Alexander, Kit and Arthur, and many pets including dog Scotty, calf Humprey, pony Moondust, rabbits, sheep, tadpoles and a cat.

The visit with the Youngs was great and they were kind enough to make us an excellent dinner Monday night where we were joined by Shan's brother Alex and his wife Judy, who gave us travel advice for some of the New Zealand highlights we had in mind. Over the last three days (to keep this brief), we visited Murawai beach and the amazing gannett colony there, (see photo!) Waiheke Island in the harbor outside Auckland, the Ponsonby district of the city itself, then today Rotorua, a drive past Lake Taupo, and here we are in Turangi, where we will stay the night before setting off on a 7-hour hike, the Tongariro Crossing. We just consumed two very large parcels of "fush and chups."

Leaving in just a bit. Last minute - trying to reduce our things! Three months, one pair of levis... no problem.

It's 2 p.m. and we're leaving for LAX in just a couple of hours. Hope I/we caught you for a quick catching up before we go - it's been great to talk to friends and family this past week when we actually had some time to relax a little. My pack weighs about as much as a small elephant so I have to go and cull things from it now... but next time we post we'll be in another time zone!

Wow - another ten-mile walk, this time from Glendale to Los Feliz and back. Not very picturesque, I have to say. Thankfully, New Zealand promises to be much more appealing. Here, resting his weary legs, Akhil does Lonely Planet research.

And now for something completely different: Lucky (Akhil and team's robotic dinosaur character) makes Time magazine...

This is Shannon amongst our packing pile. When she married me, I promised matching Coach luggage and Ritz-Carltons. What, this is it? A Dana pack and an REI tent...



Ah, the trip preparations continue, though I think we're just about done. Medicines, shoes, documents, visas, clothes... Now we're just looking at guidebooks, trying to learn a bit about New Zealand before we go. We walked 12 miles yesterday to break in Akhil's overkill boots and Shannon's reasonable hiking shoes.



Oh, I have to go, Shannon is reading a guidebook and has suddenly become excited about kangaroos.

Today is --- Akhil's last day at Disney! At least for three months. After nearly six years there, this is a significant event. He plans to return to work as soon as we set foot back in Los Angeles in February. And tomorrow is Todd's 30th birthday. And if he's old, that means I'm REALLY old. Oy.

On Friday I (Shannon) joined the ranks of the unemployed -- voluntarily. Am I crazy?! What? In fact it was a necessary step en route to a 3-month journey that should help Akhil and me get some perspective so we can plan our next major life move. Though it was sad to drive that one last time off the Fox lot, I think I'll be alright. Now we've got the tickets, the traveler's checks, the shots, (most of) the gear and the drugs. I wish there was a shot for shopping fatigue.

Meanwhile, we're fattening up this week: Akhil took me to Cafe Bizou in Pasadena to celebrate my last day of work and tonight we're headed to Akbar for Indian food with Susan and Peter. Tomorrow it's drinks and pizza with Leslie and Thursday Sushi Sasabune.