new year's changing faster landscapes

in the pics: the bike I rented for the two weeks; and to shots of our camper van..sorry no pics of the inside. they were blurry for some reason...but just to say we had a stove, and sink, microwave, and places to sleep,,,and a table we could set up...and a toilet and shower (which we didn't use).

12/31
New years eve. We got some fagu malosi, and then found a nice beach side camp site. So had about 10 other families. Which was how it was going to be for the entire trip—lots of people all around us. The beach had a cool wind blowing—reminded me of the Oregon coast beach, with the mist from the ocean waves. About midnight we were serenaded by accordions from next door. We’ll toast to that. Hot chocolate and baileys is very good.

I noticed that my heels were cracking; one was very painful. It was very cold, no humidity like Samoa. So I bought some lotion. All was good then, and long as I put it on after every shower.



1/1
One thing that impressed me was how fast you could get to different landscapes in NZ. Today I was at the beach, at a glacier, and then running around a lake. Oh, and I biked a section of the NZ road. A short stretch between the two glaciers that went up and up and up, then down down down and back up again. And some more down.
We were at a motor park during the night, at most motor parks we had a power hook up, so we could charge the laptop, cell phones, use our space heater, and make melted cheese in the microwave.

Because we were going through mountains, the radio stations did not stay with us for very long. I wished we had more music, ie. Some good CDs. #3 VERY IMPORTANT: bring some CDs if you want to listen to music during your car rides.