We're heading home (after New Zealand)

Thank you for all of your letters, e-mails, blog comments, tweets, wuphs, and faxes.  The voice of the people has been heard!  We are coming home early.  We are starting New Zealand on Saturday instead of in 2 months.  That puts us back in the US before Christmas.

We've enjoyed our time here in Australia, especially the people we've met.  But things like hitting the kangaroo and a lack of Taco Bells and free refills are moving this part of the journey toward the French movie spectrum.  We've always been aiming for a trip more like Napoleon Dynamite.  Sometimes it's better to walk in the cold to watch Netflix with friends in Durham than it is to walk along a tropical beach in Australia.

So we are moving on to a month of moving around New Zealand to take in  a country, that short of Flight of the Conchordes and Lord of the Rings, we know even less about than Australia.

The International Global DanPark is arranging a parade for our return.  We will arrive in a stretch Prius, to be sensitive and stuff.  But since the Prius motor doesn't have enough power to do a stretch car, the Prius will have to be towed by a V10 diesel truck.  It will have an EPA bumper sticker to be sensitive. The minibar will be stocked entirely of ice cold Diet Coke with free refills.