From Helen

Helen wanted me to let everyone know she said hello and she is having a good time. She is having a great experience and is glad she came.

So far Helen's favorite things are:

1. Sailing in Auckland
2. Maori day
3. Caves
4. Looking over the Pacific Ocean

Kate's day in Napier

My day started out nice with a run along the bay. I started out running with Ann Marie but she is a champion runner. She will down play it but she is FAST LIKE LIGHTENING! I made it about 3 miles and then walked the rest, she must have went about six miles. It was a beautiful place to run. On one side was the ocean and the other side the beautiful city. Pretty cool. Great way to start the day.

Today we went on two tours - A walking tour of the city and a wine tasting tour. Here are the highlights.

1. Walking tour - Napier is an Art Deco city. The city was wiped out in the 1930s by an earth quake. When the rebuild they did in Art Deco architecture. I didn't know what that was but i learn alot. It is basically 20s 30s style buildings. Picture pastels, geometric shapes, zigzag patterns, sun bursts and you will know what I am talking about. It was neat to learn the history of the town.
   
2. Wine tasting tour - We went on a HawksBay winetasting tour with our guide Karl and an Aussie named Vince. We hit about 4 wineries and tasted about 30 wines. At one stop they talked to us about wine/food pairings as we sampled from a delicious tappas plate. they have great wines but the NZ production only makes up about .28 of the world's wine industry. We had a nice day and great conversation.

After dinner and a walk along the beach we are settling in for the night. Tomorrow we fly to Christchurch. Christchurch is supposed to be the most English town outside of England. We'll see how it goes.

All I can say is Wow!

I can't believe I am doing this. Each place we go to is even more beautiful then the next. I feel very blessed that I can do this trip with my friends. It would only be better if Ron and the kids were with me. I know Ron would love it. I do have to admit that the kids are probably a little too young to really enjoy and remember it.

So Maori day was wonderful. We did a museum tour first, went back to the room and then went to the feast night. As part of the museum tour we got to see the geyser. It was really cool. I think it was one of the best parts for me. Yes, I think I love the Geyser and the hot mud pools. It may sound weird but the nature Amazed me. I was in awe! You could feel the heat from the geyser just going near it. You could see the mud bubbling! What was interesting was seeing a cold stream running right next to the hot geyser and the vegetation living right next to the mud pit and the geyser. COOL! How does that happen? All I can say is Wow!

As for the bus ride and the "Imagine This" Hypothetical song that Brad wrote about earlier . . . I don't want to talk about it. I want to pretend it never happened. Can we leave it at that!

Today was a good day. We are in Napier now and it is even more beautiful than Rotorua. Our hotel is across the street from the beach. As I write this I can look out on the Pacific and hear the ocean waves. All I can say is Wow! One interesting thing about this beach is that there is no sand. It is all little tiny black pebbles and rocks with white sea shell pieces scattered in. Zach and I found several pieces of sea glass in 3 different colors mixed into the rock.

Tomorrow Ann Marie and I are going to go on a run next to the ocean. They have a running/walking path that follows the ocean for a few miles. I'm pretty excited about it. After that we have a walking tour of the city, followed by wine tasting.

I miss ALL of you and I hope you had a very Happy New Year.

PS - Costco Travel is awesome. Things have been going so well. I will definitely use them again for trips!