We’re now back in New Zealand and after a whole day to get organized we have hit the road for a month long trip around the South Island.  Last year we toured the North Island and were stunned by the beauty of the country.  Talk to any Kiwi though and all you hear is, “Wait until you see the South Island!”

So, we’re looking forward to some great adventures and now that our US vacation is over, we will get back to blogging for those of you who follow this site.

It’s Wednesday night and we’re one day out of Whangarei in the town of Hamilton.  We have tickets on the Ferry from Wellington to Picton (from the North Island to South Island) day after tomorrow (Friday).

Here’re a few pictures to get warmed up.  I’m testing a new lens I bought.  A 50-300mm telephoto.  It takes some nice pictures but I’m finding I need to be really careful on the long zoom because even with the vibration reduction (VR) system, any shaking results in blurred images.

Getting close to a full moon for our road trip.

A Pukeko posed for us in the town of Hamilton as we make our way south.

We’re been taking a break!  We went home for the holidays.  We had a great, busy, hectic, two months back in Berkeley, California celebrating with family and friends.  Now we need a vacation (OK, just kidding…)

As a bonus, at the end of January as we were ready to make our way back to New Zealand, my sister Sue (and her husband Andy) were kind enough to host us in their timeshare in Maui, Hawaii along with my parents.  So, we had a great final family week together golfing, hiking, whale watching and more.  Here’s a few pics to catch us up on that trip.

My favorite yacht club. Ann and I had a wonderful lunch on the deck overlooking Lahaina harbor.

We got lucky with our whale watch trip. A mother was teaching her calf how to jump (breach).

With all the whales we've seen you'd think we'd get tired of this. NOT!

We finally had a chance to close the loop on our story of the bottle we dropped at the equator that “sailed” over 3000 miles and 15 months across the Pacific and landing in Fiji.  We met Vanni, sister of Boto and Esther who live in Fiji and found the bottle on the beach on their island.

If you have followed this blog since last year you know that Boto lives on an island in Fiji named Nairai and it was he who found our bottle in June, 2013.  He doesn’t have internet on Nairai, but was able to contact his sister Vanni via cell phone-who it turns out lives in San Rafael, California just 45 minutes by car from Berkeley where Ann and I stay with my parents when we’re in town.

It was Vanni who then contacted us via email and told us her brother had found the bottle we launched back in April, 2012 as we crossed the equator on our way from Mexico to New Zealand.  The original posts about finding the bottle and subsequently meeting Boto, their sister Esther and the rest of the family on Nairai, are on this site in the July and September 2013 archive.

So fast forward to this January and we finally got our schedules to mesh and had a chance to meet Vanni (and her husband, his cousin and another friend of the family) in person!  What a delight.  She made a Fijian dinner of curried chicken and cassava root and of course lots of Kava!

It was soooo great to meet her and close the loop on the “bottle” story…for now.  While the “bottle” story is complete, we now have a bunch of new friends with which we’ll no doubt make some new stories with in the years to come (not the least of which is our plan to visit Nairai again this year).

Here's Ann with Vanni

This is Vanni's sister Esther back in Nairai. It was fun to see how much they look and act alike even though Vanni has lived away for 15 years!

No Fijian gathering is complete without Kava and here it is in San Rafael, California.