serious mission

in case you haven't noticed you're in the middle of my serious mission to get my blog updated.

the best part

the best part about driving new zealand:

touring the back roads and stumbling across great bridges

stopping at as many fruit or fish and chip stands as you like

pulling over to the perfect spot to lay back and nap in the warm breeze

two things

two things I loved about dunedin (pronounced dune eee din):

a restaurant filled with with kitschy collectibles...I literally found myself drooling over all of the vintage coffee carafes, and delicious food to boot

hiking miles in the dark at 4 in the morning across sand dunes and around huge sleeping sea lions to a hut on a lookout point where we sat and drank hot cider, ate muffins and watched the yellow eyed penguins make their daily trek down a steep trail to the water from their nests. it was barely light but we saw them and it was like finding a treasure. magic really. our guide, steven, was a local professor, originally from ireland. he studied penguins in antarctica and south africa and his love of penguins was contagious.

everywhere

left, right, up, down you'll see the following no matter where you look in new zealand:

the color green

water

sheep

new zealand in lists

decided to recap last year's trip to new zealand in list form given that most of my blogging is now done with the little spaghetti (aka lincoln) stuck to me. some of my favorites:

going from fall in portland to all of the springtime goodness new zealand had to offer

gorgeous wool...everywhere and in every form



visiting friends, corey and amanda

meals of fresh seafood (most of which came with fries in baskets breaded and fried to perfection of which I LOVE to drench in malt vinegar and dip in tartar sauce)

my very favorite new zealand moment by far was in our hotel bathroom in queenstown with a barely positive pregnancy test (which, if you've ever lived in the world of taking these tests, the faintest positive pretty much means you've got a little spaghetti in the oven). now looking back, I wish I would have taken a self portrait in the mirror. I was glowing.