This post is for my daughter Andrea, architect of this website (and who keeps saying “WRITE! WRITE!). She and my sweetheart Lester and my mom Helen were the planners of the wonderful surprise farewell/”retirement” party they threw for me Thursday! It was fantastic, and I WAS **totally** surprised! It was a lovely evening in the company of wonderful friends and family – I missed those of you who could not make it to Duangrats (some of the best Thai food in town). To my delight, I received a few things that I had not thought of, or had not been able to find – thank you! These will fit nicely into my backpack – my ONLY bag… yes, I am truly backpacking NZ. My next post will hopefully be when I land in Christchurch, assuming I will easily find an internet cafe. 🙂

For those of you who might not know and be wondering why and what that photo is up there, that is Milford Sound, on the south island of New Zealand, where I am headed in late February. I will be hiking with my sis Karen on the famous Milford Track for 5 days, and then working with Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village for 16 days to build a house for a Maori family near Auckland.