Catching Up

Here is a little guy I will be visiting on our upcoming trip to New Zealand. He is the son of a woman I have known since she was this exact age. Kristie made the decision to live in New Zealand as a young woman. She works in the film industry as a 'creature' editor. She has worked for Peter Jackson and has been involved in the Hobbit films and King Kong and others.

A few years ago, we went to New Zealand to attend her wedding. It was , a marvelous event, set in the rolling hills of the South Island where much of 'Lord of the Rings' was filmed.

We loved the trip from Christchurch to Clyde. There was not another vehicle on the road and the scenery changed dramatically from mile to mile. Sheep, lots of sheep, green hills, steep canyons, rain forests and beaches with penguins were all there. The small towns were friendly and so doable. I felt that we had gone back thirty years in time. Our anxieties melted away in this friendly land. I could well understand how my friend could have adopted this country as her own and decided that this was the place to raise children and make her way.

Every year we have taken a long trip with my brother and his wife, always to Europe. But this year we are making the long trek across the Pacific to Auckland and we'll travel from the North Island all the way to the tip of the South Island and on to Stewart Island, the farthest south I have ever been. Along the way, we'll make a grand American Thanksgiving celebration with the expats. (They are worried about the availability of cranberries, and how to find a suitable turkey?) We'll make do, no doubt.

I cannot wait to begin the journey. I will not think about the dreadful state of the world, the war, the embarrassment I feel because of our current occupant in the White House, and the environmental problems.

For the last several days we have been completing tasks, tying up affairs, getting things in order. Our conservation easement went through this week. Now, our land is perpetually not to be developed. We are thrilled. And so are the critters, turkeys, cranes, and deer who stroll by. Unexpectedly, we were paid a bunch of money by the state for this. These last couple of days it has been fun to write checks to pay for grand children's education, a large gift to marine science at USF, and other philanthropies, and of course a good bit to Uncle Sam. (We were not tempted to buy a Lexus! The old Honda still serves.)

We need to start packing for our trip. Hopefully the weather will be cooler than it has been here in Florida. In New Zealand it will be early spring, a cool maritime spring.

We'll be gone for the month, but I will write again when we return.