The End is Near...

Hanmer Springs...
Our city at sunset...














Cathedral Square











(below) Our home...(64 Scruttons)
and... Girls at All Blacks game










Hanmer Springs...



Hi All :) Well, here we are with only 2 months remaining in our visas. Wow! Where in the HECK has the time gone? The last few weeks have been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster--thinking about leaving this place behind is such a weird feeling. I'm excited to see everyone at home but I know leaving here is going to be a very sad day. But I know this is just the beginning---so much to explore! Perhaps even starting with my own backyard (there has been talk of a big road trip across the US of A!). Other then the emotional-ness of "where do we go from here", things have been great. I think I left off with the All Blacks rugby match. Me and a few friends went and it was great! Our seats might as well been on top of a freakin mountain but we had a clear view of the entire pitch. The coolest thing may have been seeing the Haka live---it was incredible. The next weekend, we had an international dessert night at the hostel with a RIDICULOUS amount of food! It was all so delicious and I think we were all stuffed for about 2 days after! Molly got back safe and sound (and tan--no fair!) even though she missed her connecting flight in LA and had to wait a full day to get to NZ. Very unfortunate circumstances all around---poor thing. But, she had a great time at home and in cape cod for her cousins wedding. The weekend she got back, we drove to Hanmer Springs and enjoyed a day in the natural springs hot pools---it was perfect! It wasn't too crowded at all and it snowed LOTS the entire time we were sitting in the hot pools. Couldn't have asked for a better day to be there! The next day was fine (clear as...) and we took a little walk up to an overlook and got to play in the snow a bit (even made an itty bitty snowman). Then, that night, we had an international Christmas night (I think this winter weather makes us all think of x-mas) with lots of food yet again! But sadly, it was probably our last international food night b/c all our friends that we met at the hostel have started going their separate ways! But it was great while it lasted! Other then that, it's been work and soccer as normal--both of which have been great. My last day of work is on 1 Sept and then we'll be packing up Mills (and getting chains for her little tires!) and traveling around the south island for about a month. Our goal was to have tickets bought by this weekend--but we failed! But we should have tickets and a final plan worked out REALLY soon. As of now, it looks like a trip around the south island, a stop in Wellington, a few nights in Fiji, a few nights in Cali (Christel, Mike, Ronnie...what's your schedule looking like in Oct.?), and then it all gets fuzzy. NY, PA, GA, TX, FL--all necessary stops sometime soon! Hopefully I still get airline benefits. I think I might of gotten a year older since I left--who knew?! :) Hope eveything is going well on the home front--Miss you all!

PS. Ry, you may like to know that Molly came back with the first 2 seasons of 24!! OH BOY!! haha :) I may be able to appreciate your obsession sometime soon!