Back!

A quick one - back Thursday, and just now feeling over the jet lag.  We logged a LOT of walking on our trip, which is probably why I only gained .2 pounds.

Back at the gym with Tom the Trainer today, and I acquitted myself pretty well, I thought.  When the planks feel like a break, I know I'm getting stronger!

Anyway, here are a few vacation pics that I don't think I posted elsewhere, just for my family fitness family:

The only way to fly, but it still sucks when you wake up after a few hours of shuteye
to discover there remains another five or six hours to go.

Many conveyances in New Zealand use the silver fern frond
as a logo....

...which is allegedly how the Maori would point their direction
on a path to their fellow warriors.

Which leads me to an interesting point:  In New Zealand, all signs, place names, highway posts, etc. are in both English and Maori, and we're told all kids learn both languages.  Also, everyone, even the pakeha (whitey) learn the Hoka, that polynesian war dance we were told was so sacred, Danielle and Cathy and Connie, at the UNLV ladies' day thing.  Huh.

Another interesting point, corroborated by more than one source:  Ted inquired of several people, Maori and whitey, why it was the Australian aboriginal tribes were almost wiped out by the Europeans, but the Maori were not.  The universal answer seemed to be that the Australian aboriginals were too peaceful and didn't fight back, whereas the Maori were slaughtering each other long before the first European arrived.  Abel Tasman (for whom Tasmania is named) is said to have not set foot in New Zealand because the landing party he sent ashore was massacred by the Maori.  So sometimes violence pays off.

America's Cup class yacht ride (pre-catamaran standard)

Auckland in the distance

Our Hobbiton guide, snapping a selfie before taking some shots of us
as I requested.  He denies that they make him wear his hair that way.

Because the only brew for the brave and truuuuuuuuue
Comes from the Green Dragon

There was much bus riding.  Ugh.

A garden in Queenstown

Hiking the Routeburn Track

This bathroom was in the middle of freaking nowhere.
Apparently they dropped it in by helicopter.  Spared no expense!

You'll note the Routeburn guide did NOT first
snap a selfie.

The drinking fountain at the Sydney Botanical Garden

Poor Christchurch!  Looked a lot like Sarajevo
after the bombing.  Over 12,000 buildings have
disappeared since the February 2011 earthquake that
killed 180-some people.  This is the site of one of the buildings
that just fell over.  In another, the stairwells collapsed!   On the upside,
there is now plenty of parking.   

I have some great ones I can't now locate, like Ted in front of a giant Sequoia, but I'll get those later.  Have a great week, everyone!