Kiwiland

Okay, it is the night before I go home, and I thought I would maybe blog a bit about my trip here in New Zealand. Right now, I just want to get home. I've been on the road for pretty much the last two months and I'm looking forward to being home for a while.

Because of a scheduling oversight on my part, I had to leave on Thanksgiving for my trip here. Dinner (and pumpkin pie) was awesome and we had a houseful of people to join us this year. The trip was uneventful except for the fact that Air New Zealand lost my bags for 2 days. Luckily, I had an extra shirt and change of underwear to get me through it.

I spent my first day in Auckland (the biggest city in New Zealand). It is a port city on the northern part of the North Island. I went up the Sky Tower which is the highest tower in the Southern Hemisphere. It was quite pretty to see the entire city and surroundings. I taught for a couple of days, attended a decent conference, and met a number of good people. One of my new friends, Trevor Pilar, was there with his wife and I spent a couple of evenings and an afternoon with them. We went on a field trip which included many of the dormant volcanoes that dot the area. I also took a boat trip out to Rangitoto which is Auckland's youngest volcano.

After spending almost a week in Auckland (a fairly big city), I flew to Christchurch. This is the largest city on the South Island and is situated just about in the middle on the East coast. The South Island is quite a bit different than the area around Auckland. It is pretty amazing. There are parts that remind me of Banff and the Swiss Alps, but there are beautiful coasts, incredible bush (I would call them rainforests or jungles), and miles and miles (okay kilometers and kilometers) of Canterbury fields/ranges/pastures/farmland.

I'll try to posts some pictures in the morning and continue on. I hate reading long posts so I'm stopping here.