so long new zealand. we'll miss you...

our time in new zealand has come to an end. we're a bit sad but excited for all the fun places to come. our last couple days here have been good ones. our day in greymouth was fairly quiet and uneventful but nice. we took the tranz alpine train across the southern alps back to christchurch. it was nice to be back in a familiar city for a bit. and we got to revisit our favorite hostel thus far... stonehurst. we still love it there. we had a good day in christchurch revisiting our favorite coffee shop and buying souvenirs. these are some of the notable things about new zealand that we've not yet mentioned in other posts:


-new zealand has lots and lots of crazy potato chip flavors. things we have tried include lamb and mint (bad), honey soy chicken (less bad), and cucumber and tzatziki (quite good).
-there are 6 possums for every kiwi (human) on these islands. they're apparently quite the pest thus the possum fur souvenirs.
- the roads all over the country are really well maintained. much better than roads in the u.s. but even on fairly high traffic highways most of the bridges are only one lane wide. there are traffic signs posting which direction gets the right of way but it got a bit dicey a couple times with people who apparently were unaware of the rules.
- the people here are amazingly friendly and helpful... even to tourists.... however, they are really aggressive drivers and pedestrians do not necessarily have the right of way.
-anna is now a lover of hiking. new zealand has changed her life forever.
- trees here mature four times faster than they do in the u.s. a pine tree here reaches maturity in 20-25 years. in the u.s. it takes 80. we have no idea how this happens but it is apparently quite good for the forestry industry.
- n.z. loves american music... especially ben harper. we have heard 'sexual healing' more times than we can count.
- we have finally gotten used to looking to the right before we start across the street. the idea of actually driving on the 'wrong' side of the road still baffles us a bit.
- as much as we've missed being in the u.s. for the inauguration, it's been good to experience the rest of the world's excitment. everywhere we've gone the last couple days people have talked to us about it. they're just as excited about obama as we are!

so that's about it. we really enjoyed our time in n.z. and both agree that we would love to come back again.

this morning we caught an early flight to sydney. it's seeming big and busy so far in comparison to the sleepy towns we've been in. also it's hot. 102 degrees today. no more jackets for cool nights for us!

oh, and i almost forgot. we may have gotten tattoos before we left n.z. yeah, we did. (note to dean, bek, sandy and stan: don't worry. we got them at a place that did not give us any type of blood born pathogen. they are respectable and in respectable places. just remember, we're adults now and you love us.) :)