A long and winding road....

Certainly a theme song for travel across New Zealand.  As we come to the end of our tourist scurry we reflect on where we have gone and what we have seen.  Roads in many areas of this country require NASCAR training to even fathom reaching the speed limit around hair pin turns that use mirrors to show you if oncoming traffic is going to push you off the road.  Of course driving on the left added a couple other gasps, turning into oncoming traffic lanes or irritating local drivers with Improper yields....kiwis are incredibly friendly but don't piss them off when driving - we encountered many with very little patience as indicated by blaring horns.  We have travelled more than 3500 km in the last 3.5 weeks and have seen incredible things.  Some of the natural highlights were the biggest tree I have ever seen called the square kauri (threatened species due to invasive pests), miles and miles of pristine coast line that never failed to take my breath away every time the road came out of the forest and connected with it- this was especially appreciated hiking the "Great" Abel Tasman trail where we alternated hiking with swimming on white sandy beaches.  Continuing on the south seeing alpine glaciers on top of incredible granite mountains, and then seeing fjord land penguins while cruising through the fjords of the Tasman Sea....oh and then there were the geysers and natural hot springs escaping the ground in Rotorua...wow. Getting kicked out of library so TBC