No Update Yesterday and It Wasn't My Fault

We stayed in a little town named "Wanatui" last night about 150km north of Wellington. It's at the mouth of the largest navigable river in all of New Zealand. Much like Easton, PA (where I went to college) and Spokane, WA and any other town that grew up around river traffic in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This also means that the advent of truck and air transport seems to have stifled its growth around that time as well. The place has a thriving artist community and strangely, a huge sports complex that includes both a Velodrome (a bicycle track for those uneducated among you) and a regular running track. We sat on a hill where we could watch both the track practice and bicycle racers. Shandelle cared for the running. I for the cycling.

We've sprinted down to Wellington, which today seems to be in the middle of a windstorm or something along those lines. It's strangely warm yet the wind is blowing at like 30-40mph gusts across the ocean. I hope this isn't normal but everyone seems to act like it is. In general, Wellington was cursed with limited land area. So, much like San Francisco, it retains character that is otherwise lost in places like Auckland. If Wellington is the San Francisco of NZ, then Auckland is the Seattle. Just with much less rain and fewer Starbucks.

We have made it a point to avoid Starbucks, Subway, and every other American chain here. Of course, that doesn't matter too much. Shandelle and I have remarked consistently that NZ is much much like the States. The only differences being that everything is 50% at stores because of the exchange rate and people say "cheers" instead of "your welcome".

That's about all for today. Tomorrow, we hit the ferry for the south island. We're hoping to reorder our trip so that we can proceed at a more leisurely pace. We've just been doing too much driving lately.

And finally, the House of Morgan book is now completed. I have to read some of the 9 books I brought on this trip so I don't have to carry so many. Once they're read, I'm shipping them back home.