I thought I should wind up a few thoughts I had on some other things I got to do in New Zealand which I didn't yet blog.

The entries to date were:

On August 27, 2007, I wrote Half A World Away From Home.

On August 31, 2007, I wrote Asides Besides Seasides....

On September 04, 2007, I wrote Besides The Seasides.

On September 08, 2007, I wrote Southern Exposure.

On September 08, 2007, I wrote Sunny Beaches!.

On September 15, 2007, I wrote Hobbit Town, New Zealand.

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So, the reason I discontinued my blogologue was that I had a hard computer crash which wiped out the "cookie" which contained the password to this blog, and I could not log in as administrator until I returned home.

To continue, I will mention hiking around "Duder Regional Park", on or about the 24th of September, which was a definite highlight of the New Zealand experience. After finding the car park, I set off on a couple hour walking tour, gaining at least a 1000 feet of elevation and completing over a 5 Kilometer walk in a great loop through a sheep ranch. It was a peninsula with very little man-made structures, other than the fences and gates keeping the sheep from walking away.

Talk about scenic beauty! This pristine height overlooked water, beaches and other landmasses in the distance – both other islands and peninsulas. At one point at it’s highest elevation, I could look down and see water surrounding the land around me, except for the area where the car was left in the distance.

On or about the 26th of September, we drove to "Waharau Regional Park", where we went on some "Bush Walks".

Having been here before, the only reason for returning was to go on one or more of the "Bush Walks" which we didn’t have a chance to go on before due to time and weather constraints. The walks boosted my confidence in that I realized I could walk up lots of hills and all that happened was a little soreness in the legs the next day. Not bad for being almost 60!

It was beautiful weather and scenery, however, so I got my requisite several hundred photos and drove back to the hotel in good spirits.

September 27, 2007 found us taking the elevator to the highest point in downtown Auckland, which is called the "Sky City Tower ".

This is one of the landmarks of Auckland that towers over every other building and is only about 6 blocks from my hotel. It is reputedly the highest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. I paid NZ$18 to ride up the elevator, which made my ears pop, to a fantastic view of Auckland, all spread out in every direction.

Since I have had so many opportunities to travel in New Zealand, it felt like old home week and I made jokes by pointing out nearly every window, muttering, "Been there!", and "Done that!", over and over. While true, my travels were actually beyond the line of sight of even this tall structure.

There is a "ride" from the top, for those wishing for a "bungie-like" jump. It is actually a controlled jump, using wires instead of a bungie cord, but I declined, not so much for the hundred dollar pricetag, as that I’d already paid for my return trip via elevator… oh, yeah, and by the way, I don’t especially like heights, let alone jumping into midair from close to a kilometer high in the air! But it was fun watching others take the ride.

The next day, we took a ferry to "Waiheke Island".

Waiheke (Wye-Hee-Key) Island, has a population of about 9000 year-round, which balloons to about 50,000 during the summer months, is about a half an hour away by ferry. I didn’t think a car was needed there, so we paid to walk onto the ferry and enjoyed the brisk headwind at the top of the ferry on a bright sunny day. It turned out that the island was not very accessible by foot, so I decided to pay for a tourist bus on the far side and saw most of the island, with a few stops for pictures and a wine tasting stop at a local winery.

The day was beautiful, as was the scenery. Many people have summer homes there and the median home price seemed to be over NZ$500K, although the homes with great views obviously averaged well over a million NZ. There was even a nudist beach, which I saw from quite a distance away, although it is still early spring here, so I saw no one enjoying the surf.

The cost of the ferry was NZ$28 and the tour bus cost NZ$25, well worth a relaxing day away from the city, and seeing something new. After getting back from Waiheke, I had a great dinner at an Italian restaurant I had been to before, after which I worked on emails and expense reports, until going to bed.

I didn't talk much about the work I was doing there, but that all turned out well, and after the ride home to Snohomish, (which incidently left me at my house at almost the exact same time as I left New Zealand), I was really glad to be home.

The next weekend, I drove down to see my brothers and deliver my father George's and my brother Patrick's cremated ashes to a cemetary for internment. Mom's will be delivered there at some point in the next two years, since she donated her body to The University of Washington for research.

The last two weeks have seen me getting back "into the groove" at work in Everett, and spending some time at home cleaning up my office, the garage, and wind-damage around the yard.

I am a lucky guy!