Hello, Goodbye~beatles

The pictures from above were taken on our last hike in New Zealand. We decided to hike to Mueller Hut, situated on Mt. Ollivier (the 1st moutain Sir Edmund Hillary climbed) b/c Blaine's cousin, Tommy, had suggested it. It was a 1,000 meter climb from Mt. Cook Village past the Sealy tarns, through a boulder field, up a rock scree slope, to climb through snow at the top and cross over the saddle to the hut. Gorgeous views for the climb out over the Hooker glacier and Mueller glacier. We shared a room filled with bunk beds with 3 other couples-from Israel, Germany and France. So as we got dressed in the morning there were 4 languages being spoken simutaneously. Interesting to say the least...but everyone commonly spoke English (which we were grateful for). You had to trudge through the snow to the outhouse (the small red building away from the hut-pictured above). Just to note: it is summer here and there was plenty of snow around. The hike up took us around 3 1/2 hours and the hike down about 2 1/2 hours. The only negative of the trip: Blaine got a ticket from the speed camera for going 66 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. $120 well spent for such a memorable weekend away!

Well, we leave 1 week from today and move away from New Zealand. Hard to believe that 2 1/2 years can pass so fast. Blaine and I worked our last day this past Friday. We are officially both unemployed (although Blaine would rather refer to himself as retired). There have been some sad goodbyes already. We are really going to miss this place. The golden question has been: "when do you guys think you'll be back?". Who knows the answer to that but the way we have answered has been "as soon as we can make it". New Zealand has most definitely changed us. And I believe there is no place like it on Earth.

Now, onwards for our next adventure....