Finding Middle Earth and Hobbitland,

Greetings to everyone from New Zeeland. Deb and I are off on the great adventure and having a wonderful time. It has been nothing less than brilliant so far. But first, a much appreciated thank you for your good wishes, prayers, and overall support. It was and will continue to be a highlight of our trip. We remain connected and think of you often on our daily travels.

We send along our prayers and support for my cousin Mary Anne whose daughter Livy died this week from complications of Neurofibromatosis. Mary Ann and family were remarkable, caring, and courageous in giving Livy a wonderful last year.

We arrived in New Zeeland only 5 days ago, but we have already traveled the North Island and crossed over Cook Strait by ferry today and are settling into the Marlborough region (wine country) for the next 2 days. We have been impressed with the ever present commitment, value and recogition of the Maori culture (original settlers to NZ in 800 AD) throughout all of NZ. Yes there are the towns of Wellington, Hamilton, Christ CHurch, but almost every other town, road, sign, and historical marker is Maorin. We visited the Waitangi Treaty House outside of Paihia where the Maori chiefs signed a treaty giving sovereignty to Queen Victoris in exchange for rights to lands, forests,and fisheries in 1840, as well as the only active, living Maori village outside the town of Rotorua. Enough of the history.

Some of my favorite things so far have been the highways - if you come to NZ you have to see part of it by car. Driving on the opposite side has been amusing for Deb and she silently counts how many times I end up in the wrong lane or turn on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker. IT's hard to fake the wipers when it is sunny and beautiful out. NO accidents yet though. They also have great signs along the roads - " You're on holiday, what's the hurry"," Slippery when frosty", and "protect our forests because they are saving the rest of the world". I particulary like the slow lanes every 10 km to let the native NZ pass me. I have to admit the Hyundai does not have much pick up going up the mountain passes - we have both tried to lean forward to see if we could get the car going faster. The most amazing thing though is that each day you don't imagine you will see as spectacular a scenery as the previous day, but you do. I The country is a combination of COlorado, Washington, Northern Calif, and Ireland without the rain.

SO we did go looking for HObbit land and did manage to see Mount Doom as well as many expansive,green carpeted mountain valleys, covered with sheep and no houses.....just like in the movie.

I promised Deb that I wouldn't tell the story of the shower at our last motel (more like a room in a house) except to say that her only comment was "This isn't right!!"

I did manage to visit a hospice agency in Rotorua. Had a nice chat with the head nurse. All of their patients are at home and they do not have a residential home. The government is strongly supportive and in many towns we saw the "hospice store" on the main street where items can be donated for those in need. For my friends in St. Cloud, their typical census is 70 patients and they primarily use SQ infusions instead of IV's for pain control.

We are impressed with the focus on organic foods, a limited number of fast food outlets ( but they are growing), a respect for the environment ( maori influence), and a genuinely friendly people who wish us safe travels.

Oh yeah, and remember the next time you go out for Chinese take-out in the US, they call it Chinese take-away here in New Zeeland.