Yesterday, Saturday, was our 6th workday, and I **really** worked (not that I hadn’t been already!) – I got to work on the new site for the first time.

In case I had not mentioned it earlier, our team is actually working on two new houses under construction. The one most of us are working on is the traditional Habitat house here in Auckland, made out of a heavy, thick “tri-board” (wood chips and glue – very strong) with aluminum siding and roof…very nice looking. The other house has just been started, and is using an experimental design by a local university student architect, who is also supervising the build. That one is using a type of concrete block (I’ll have to find out more later), and we are preparing the foundations for the garage and the house. (more…)

Today was our 5th workday on the house we are building for Juanita, the single mom who will be the new homeowner. She had sick kids on Monday and Tuesday, but has been at the building site for several hours the last two days, working along side us as much as possible when she is not at work. (more…)

Wow – what an adventure this trip has been! When I arrived in Auckland on Sunday (March 5th) at 9am, I was just an hour too late to join the team’s short city tour, so the director of the Manukau Habitat affiliate picked me up and took me to their house to help prepare for the big brunch for the team and all the other kiwis that would join in. (ALL New Zealanders refer to themselves as kiwis.) And it turns out I was really lucky I didn’t make that tour… when they were stopped at a high point above the city and the stadium where the All Blacks (national rugby team) play, the van was broken into and 3 lost passports, IDs, tickets, money, cell phones, cameras, etc! So that was a rather inauspicious beginning, but we have had a great time so far, in the midst of those three having to deal with that. (more…)

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay in updating my travelogues here!

Friday (March 2), Karen and Phil and I drove over the mountains north out of Queenstown to the small community of Fox Glacier. It was a lovely, relaxing drive that took about 8 hours, including all our stops for photos and lunch. Luckily, Phil is almost as much of a camera nut as I am. We could see many of the same mountains I had seen before, from different perspectives, and then many new ones as well – all are incredibly rugged and ragged-peaked, with long, sharp jagged ridgelines and shiny granite faces, sheared by glaciers. (more…)

NOW UPDATED! Karen, Phil, I, and 48 other unsuspecting hikers in our group survived the Milford Track – unbelievable!!! It was **very** challenging – it was not 33 miles in 5 days, as I thought, but 33.5 miles in THREE days – I just didn’t read the fine print very carefully! (more…)

What a beautiful day – shirtsleeve weather, beautiful!!

I had planned to take the gondola to the top of one of the mountains just above the city, but when I got to the gondola terminal, I noticed a couple of hikers headed off on a trail, and realized that there is a trail to the top! I had been thinking I need to keep my legs in shape for the Milford Track tomorrow, so this was perfect. It turned out to be more than adequate for this purpose! It was **VERY** steep, and in my sneakers, was quite challenging, but beautiful. It was very like nearing the top of the trail above Bear Lake in Colorado, where the trail gets steeper and rockier. There were many spots where I had to pull myself up using branches and rocks. (more…)

Hello all… I was going to say this was an uneventful day, but the bus ride from Mt. Cook to Queenstown this aftenoon was really rather amazing, in retrospect. It seemed that we crossed the wide high rolling hills (over Lindis pass for miles and miles) of sheep and dairy farms, then vineyards, forever! They truly seemed endless, sometimes barren, sometimes heavily covered with many-colored green shrubs, always very steep, then becoming very rugged. It could have been the hills of Texas, or of southern Idaho. I think now that I would like to see a sheep farm, and plan to check out that possibility. Shops selling the ‘finest merino wool in the world’ are **everywhere** – too bad I rarely wear it, it seems a shame to pass it up. We passed through the glider flight capital of the world – only two weeks ago the international competition was held in Omarama. (more…)

I went to the top of Mt. Cook yesterday! Unbelievable. I splurged on a scenic helicopter ride – nearly an hour – and it [almost] left me speechless. We flew up the Tasman Valley (where I am staying, in Aoraki Mt. Cook National Park), over the Tasman Glacier, which is not the longest in the world outside the Arctic Circles but in the southern hemisphere. I still don’t remember how long it is, but I think not 70km – maybe 27km! We then flew between Mt. Tasman and some other peak, over the Main Divide (I presume their version of the Continental Divide) and landed on the Franz Josef Glacier, which is 11km long. I simply could not believe the spectacularly beautiful scenery – literally surrounded by jagged, pointy peaks and snow, and icefalls! As you can imagine, I was in heaven, or felt like it. (more…)

As I write this, it is about 9pm, and I have a warm buzz from having enjoyed the South Island’s favorite beer, Speights, while spending over an hour in the sofa lounge just mesmerized by the howling winds streaming the snow off the peak of Aoraki Mt. Cook (Aoraki means “cloud piercer”), which was finally bathed in sunshine after being shrouded in rain and clouds all day. (more…)

It is about 7:30pm here (about 1:30 am Tuesday, your time), and I got about 4 hours’ sleep on the plane last night from San Fran to Auckland, so have been up for about 30 hours except for the fitful airplane-seat snooze. I have kept busy today, hoping to sleep like a log tonight!

NZ smells like San Diego, because it has a maritime climate, and when we landed in Christchurch (CC) this morning at 8 am, the city was still blanketed with what Dave & Susie would call the “marine layer” of fog. (more…)

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.

Thank you Andrea 🙂 – this is the best Christmas present I could have asked for!! You literally anticipated what I would need and love to have, and read my mind, long before I even knew my own mind. I can’t wait to really get this filled up with interesting travel stories and photos. Thank you so much for this, and for all the work you put into it. It is great, and I love you!

Hi Mom! Merry Christmas! I know how much you enjoy writing about your trips, so I created this website for you to share all your adventures, beginning with the prep for your NZ trip in March. I designed it with the intention of being able to change the header photo and map background to suit your current destination. It is a work in progress, so please feel free to ask for any changes you like! Or, if you’d rather jump in and get started right away, click on “Log In” to the right to access the Journal system, WordPress, or click on Photos above to get into your gallery. And don’t hestitate to ask if you have any questions. I love you, and I can’t wait to start reading!

Saturday, October 8, 2005 was the 17th annual Sea Gull Century bike ride, one of the most popular in the nation, starting and ending at the University of Salisbury, MD, and yep, we did it! My sister Patricia and I and two great friends, Amy-Marie and Robin, braved the raging remnants of hurricane Tammy, and completed our first “century” ride – 100 miles and nearly 9 hours in the saddle, in the pouring, crashing, trashing rain! (more…)

Last Day – in Belgrade (PDF)

Ski Day 6 – Our Last (PDF)

Ski Day 5 (PDF)

Ski Day 3 – Part II (PDF)

Ski Day 3 (PDF)

Drive to Kapaonik National Park Ski Resort – Day 5 (PDF)

The Walking Street and Fort Kalameggdan – Day 4 (PDF)

Belgrade – Days 1-3 (PDF)