We bought a tent today for $76 NZ (about $40 US) after much shopping around. Oddly, most we looked at were over $1000 NZ, and then we found this one. Also have a car lined up for the month for $750 NZ, with insurance. We thought about buying a car and selling it, but it is too much to cram into a month.

I got pretty excited about the New Zealand leg after looking at topo maps of the camping sites, there are tons of 3-4 day "tramping" (camping) trips to go on. Even if we don't get to many of those, there is beach camping, hot springs, surfing, river rafting, bungee jumping, tons of stuff to do. So we're headed off to the bush. Probably head down the east coast of the North Island, and then as much of the south island as time will allow.

There was much more than turquoise water and sandy beaches to Fiji than we had expected. It has much more of an interesting culture than other tropical destinations I have been, like cannibalism (thank goodness it's no longer practiced) and a chieftain system in the villages. Other than getting a chance to experience the cruising lifestyle and listening to Captain Joe's crazy stories, we also visited some small villages and towns where we met the the nicest people. Fijians are probably the friendliest people we have met yet!!

Apparently 40% of the population are Indians, brought over by the Brits a few generations ago as slaves on the plantations. Walking around in the bigger cities in Fiji makes you think you might be in India. And then of course there are the Chinese. In fact, fried rice and chow mein are as popular as their curry dishes.

No more tropical sun tans (or sun burns...) as we are now in Auckland, crashing with some local kiwis thanks to my friend Karen. Looking forward to doing some trekking and other crazy kiwi activities.

We had a fantastic time sailing in Fiji on the Mundaca.

Our trip included doing some crew work for a discounted price on the 72 foot yacht Mundaca, which was lots of fun, swabbing the decks, raising the sails, eating great food, fishing (caught a Mahi Mahi and a Baracuda), a Moon-bow - which is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen, unbelievable sunsets, drinking Kava, snorkeling, scuba diving, making beach fires, Sunday methodist church - whole sermon in Fiji couldn't understand it but the singing was great, Fiji style feasts, a salty dog of a captain, good friends, and a one month yacht club membership in Savusavu Fiji. We've just landed in New Zealand and are planning the next leg of the journey.

Well, it's been a wild couple of weeks in North America. After arriving from Central America we had the week long ski trip to Whistler and Vancouver. I loved Vancouver and would like to move there. I had bizzare series of sales meetings, for certain clients, and found my self doing business travel in the midst of a backpacking trip. Pretty odd, but it looks like a sale is possible in the next few months, which could completely curtail my travel plans.

We relized that San Francisco is the most beautiful city we've been to since we left, and quite possibly in the world. Had tons of great re-unioin, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and drinks with friends, and it was great to see everybody.

So we're heading to Fiji, quite glad to be heading out of the country in its current war like and ugly climate. Doing some sailing, so we might not have a posting for a little while.

Once again, we had trouble leaving the country. We were not allowed to check in last Sunday night because we did not get to the counter 45 minutes ahead of time (we missed it by 2 minutes!!) to check our bags. Needless to say, we were not too happy and since we were still feeling a bit culture shocked and out of place, we started cursing United Airlines and the US in general.

We did make our way into Canada the next day and were again whisked to another huge chinese feast by my parents, grandma and aunts (we celebrate the first few days of chinese new year, not just the first day) and were basically fed continuously during our entire stay.

We also spent 3 days up in Whistler with the WASTED crew - an annual Whistler trip organized by my cousin Joe and a few of his friends. Do check out the website! They want to eventually allow others to plan ski trips on their site, it's pretty cool (Kirby is a genius!). There wasn't much snow. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen the mountain that bare! Forunately the weather was fabulous and the snow wasn't all that bad and we had a great time anyway riding and drinking with everyone. Check out our pictures!! and some other fun ones from Kirby's camera , including a very nice sequence shot of Joe's failed rail slide jump which earned him 'Crash of the Day' award, sorry Joe ;)

or 'Staging Area' as Charlie called it since we don't really have a home. The only remnant from our 498 Carl Street home was our bed, which i happily hopped up and down on the first second I walked in the door at my parent's house.

We left the volcanos, mango trees, rice and beans, etc. this morning and are now lounging in my parent's living room after a huge fantastic Chinese New Year dinner with my family! Happy New Year (it's the year of the ram!)!!

Final week activities in Costa Rica included a few days' attempt at surfing, watching superbowl with a bunch of Americans in the largly foreigner-populated beach town of Nosara, and a few days volunteering with Habitat for Humanity!

We stayed with a family in Miramar in Central Costa Rica and helped a young family build their home. It was HARD WORK, especially under the fierce sun. Even though we only had 3 days, we helped them out quite a bit with the foundation. It was fun and rewarding and we had a great time with the family, first chance we had to get to know some local Ticos. We have new found respect for construction work and are looking forward to hopefully doing more the second part of our trip or back here at home.

Tomorrow we are off to Vancouver for a short visit to see my grandma and some snowboarding at Whistler!