Goodbye Land of the Long White Cloud, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

Brisbane, Australia here we come...

By itself, New Zealand has been amazing – as expected. But it has been the people, especially the ones that have opened their homes and hearts to us that have made it truly special.  We had a wonderful time with everyone.

Rachel and Regan, you were our introduction to New Zealand and showed us Auckland and got us started on the right foot with the Kiwi lingo and L&P. We’ll always remember “sweet as” and “yeah nah yeah”. Thanks for the bbq dinner too (and the wifi)!

Robin, our guide to Devonsport… thanks so much dinner and teaching us all about Auckland, including politics.  The folk music concert was a great time- sorry we had to run to the ferry so abruptly!

Hal and Trish, our personal guides to Hawkes Bay wineries.  Thanks so much for the tours, salmon dinner and a great night outside the campervan with great company and nice broadband! J

Maitland, we had such a blast with you man!  Peka Peka beach is such a special place- you’re lucky to be able to hang out there.  We loved Wellington too and hope we can hang out sometime, maybe in another galaxy at least.  Thanks too for the wifi love.

Dan, a perfect Christchurch host, from whom we learned about things such as kiwiana (like Americana) and the social history of NZ.  Thanks for the food, lodging, wifi, hospitality and introducing us to your friends.  Go well!

You all have a place to stay in Seattle ANY TIME and we hope we’ll see you there.  Just remember we’ll be there in 2007. Cheers!

Christchurch seems like a little bit of England to me. It has a river called the “Avon” running through it, it’s centered on “cathedral square”, has lots of historical churches and a lively theater community.

Like much of the past couple of weeks, it rained here for most of our visit, but that was OK.  We still got out and ate good food, saw the play Cyrano performed for free in the Botanical Gardens and even won a few dollars at the casino.

As nice as it is, Christchurch doesn’t seem to be all that exciting for the tourists like ourselves.  It’s got charm, but it’s a pretty conservative city with flat geography and a rather strange mix of classical and contemporary architecture. We recommend it, but liked Wellington better.

Most of all, we enjoyed our time with Dan Randow, our friend and host for our three days here. Thanks for opening your home to us with great food and company. Thanks for everything Dan!