Saturday, April 25

I am a bit hung over from drinking 3 glasses of wine. Well I think it was only three. The servers kept our glass from being empty so it is hard to determine exactly how much we had. So nice to sleep in to 8:30am. My phone is buzzing from the other participants who got up early and photographed the sunrise. Today my motto is: the sun will come up tomorrow. By the time I get to breakfast, there are only two guys left eating so I join them. Gradually one by one others arrive quite sleepy and craving coffee.

Some of them got up and shot the sunrise photo from their room deck. We chat and promise to stay in touch, but I don't know who will. I hope I will get to Hawaii within the next two years and I will catch up with Heidi. She works for Hilton Garden Vacation Club and is a manager of the sales team at Waikoloa Village on the big island, one place I would like to visit. Most of the week my editing partner was Jackie Evans from England.  She lives near the boarder of Wales and would like me to visit and we would see and photograph the castles. Sounds like fun. Sara Caldwell is at least my age and is a pilot for NZAir. She is a kiwi and wants to catch up for lunch or dinner when I get to Auckland next week. Nice people. Several others made arrangements as well.

As I was going to breakfast I passed Jai, from San Francisco. She, Delaney (aged 16) and Heidi from Hawaii were going sky diving, but it was cancelled due to poor visibility. Brave ladies indeed. Jai decided she was going bungie jumping instead. Several others went directly to the airport to fly home and then some went off on other adventures here such as driving to Milford Sound. I decided to go into Queenstown and walk around for a bit. There are a lot of shops and places to lunch along the waterfront. Crossing he street I heard someone call to me and it was the fellow who was our bus driver! He helped me many times with equipment on and off the bus as well as gave some suggestions for the star photos. We chatted and he gave me one of his photos of poppies he edited.

The shops were full of wool products and very pricey. T shirts are $30, handmade wool scarves are $55. I saw a few gifts I will get later to take home as Christmas presents and I am sure I can find them in other cities as well I just don't want to carry extra weight right now.

I sat for lunch at the Vuvu cafe for a great antioxidant drink and small berry filled muffin.  After walking around for about 3 hours, I head back to the shuttle service and back to the hotel.  This place has a complimentary laundry room, so I spend some time washing all my clothes and repack for the next section of the journey. I will get to sleep early tonight for sure as I have a pick up for a cool activity tomorrow at 6:30am. Only taking my iPhone on this all day jaunt.

More adventures to come!