We drove from Christchurch (on the East Coast) over the central mountains to the West Coast and down to Franz Josef Glacier. The drive was spectacular with lush mountains and waterfalls everywhere.

We've been so busy in New Zealand and then in Thailand that I haven't got a chance to update the website in awhile. Here are some pictures for a start.

With the new pictures, the primary page was taking forever to load. So now instead of seeing them on the primary page, there's a link within the post to "Continue Reading..." Click there for the pictures.

I won't get to the Bangkok pictures today becuase there are so many to go through and it takes forever to post pictures because they each have to be resized and saved, then uploaded and added to the specific post. However I did add many New Zealand, KL and a lots of great Chiang Mai pictures.

Its hard to believe we head back home in two weeks. It's funny, I'm really itching to get back home - back to work, back to my house, cats, friends etc. However, we're not tired of traveling yet. The people, cultures, food, and unique experiences have been endless. My perspective has been adjusted by this trip. It would be hard to come here and not have a change. Like one of my mentors always says "Get back to the basics". That's what there is here - the basics. I see all the excess that we have and it seems crazy. It's not just Rick and I, but the excess in the US in general - from food portions to.....housing to....you name it. It's more than just that, but I'd be here forever writing - so lets just say that ultimately I am humbled by this experience.

The next two weeks we'll be in Hong Kong, South Africa and Rio. Talk about different cultures! Ok, time to go. I need another famous Thai massages - 1 hour costs $2.50, but when I stay for two hours there's a discount and it's only $4. Ahhhhh. I'll post again soon.

We're at the airport on our way to Auckland and thought I'd spend a minute updating everyone. Again, we had a wonderful time here. The countryside is spectacular and you can really see the Lord of the Rings landscape all around you. The Kiwis are very proud that the movie was filmed here and everyone knows someone that was in the movie and wants to tell you about it. I'll post more later on the details of our time here.

We had a great milestone earlier this week. We couldn't remember what day of the week it was - literally didn't have any idea. That was quite a liberating feeling. After two weeks, we're not tired of traveling yet, although we are ready to head to a different part of the world. We're leaving for Asia tomorrow - Kuala Lumpur first, then Thailand and Hong Kong. The parts of SE Asia where we're going did not have any damage and are fine. I'm sure they need our tourist dollars more than ever.

There's been a few funny things I've noticed about Australia and New Zealand. There are much fewer traffic lights because they use "round a bouts" - basically traffic circles (not like the one in Long Beach! - much safer here) I've grown to like them very much. They also have a strange thing with Pumpkins and Sweet Potatoes. There's Pumpkin soup everywhere and many meals are served with Sweet Potatoes. These are two things that if they fell off the earth- I would never notice they were gone, so it seems strange to me that they're so popular over here. The toliets each have a 1/2 flush and a full flush button. I suppose to conserve water. When I would ask people where the restrooms are- I got a confused look - they call them toliets here. Cars - most of them are stick shift. Bugs - very few bugs - quite to my surprise. I expected the rainforest in Cairns and the forests here in New Zealand to have many bugs. The people here all seem to be very happy - we've never been treated with anything than the utmost courtesy. Also there are a LOT of redheads! Mom ~ it'd be a lot harder to find you in a crowd :-)

We've met some wonderful people that I'm sure will be lifelong friends. Shoot I'm out of time. Will post more later!

I'll have to tell you all about it later. I just have enough time to put some pictures up and then we have to head to the airport.

Here are some pictures from Sydney. We've taken so many pictures, it's hard to decide which to post. It also takes a lot of time to post the pictures because we have to select the pictures, resize and save them, upload to the website and include them in the post. I'll do as many as I can before my time's up.