Had breakfast at the hotel in Wellington this morning. Caught a shuttle out to the airport. Flew from Wellington to Auckland (only 1 hour). Hung out at the airport in Auckland for about 5 hours. Shopped, ate, drank, exchanged money, etc... Our flight was about one hour late for bording, so we squeezed in one more bottle of wine and got on the plane at about 8:30pm (March 4). The flight was not too bad considering it's 12 hours. Got into L.A. at noon (March 4). Only had to wait there for about one hour before catching our flight to Minneapolis. No problem going thru customs (although Di had some trouble earlier with some lead pencils, then she got her superglue confiscated - trouble maker). Got back to Mineapolis at 8:00pm (March 4 - before we even left). Back home to cold weather. Said good-bye to Karen, Sal, and Di. My friends Al and Marge picked me up and a friend of the girls' (Jules) picked them up and drove them back to Lanesboro and Preston.

Please stayed tuned here and check back later. I'm very tired right now, but I will write some more parting thoughts and add a bunch more pictures to this site. Also, I will be heading out west skiing sometime in the next few days (as soon as I recover from jet lag), and maybe I will post some more then, too. Overall, it was a great trip! We covered a lot of ground and had fun wherever we went. The NZ people are very friendly and helpful. Can't believe how fast the month went. There are definitely areas in NZ that I will come back and visit someday. More later.

Chuck