Nearing the end...

New Zealand photos are now up. Bora Bora (where the shot above was taken) will be on the way after Memorial Day.

For those who have asked, Chivas has now updated their U.S. website (www.chivascircle.com) to include much of our footage from Asia. If you go there, don't click on the photo of us, but the button on the right that says "2006 Chivas Life Search." The videos from South Africa, Jordan, and Bhutan are probably better than the others.

Flying New Zealand

It only took two days of traveling around New Zealand before I was asking myself, "Why do people travel anywhere else?"

For the past two weeks, Dana and I have been driving all over New Zealand. On the surface, driving NZ isn't that different from cruising a less populated version of northern California or Oregon. The scenery is incredible, the people unfailingly friendly and, in the off season at least, you feel like you have the entire country to yourself. Then you pull your little Ford into some nice B&B, settle into your room, and go chat with the host. That's when things get weird.

Your host, more often than not a grandmotherly-type with plenty of manuka honey under her belt, will show you the tea room, the fireplace, and the bin where scones can be found at any hour, before sitting you down with a serious expression on her face.

"Now dear," she'll intone, "would you like to go heli-biking, glacier trekking, or skydiving?" We knew NZ was an adventure capital, but we never expected so many options. In the U.S., half this stuff would be illegal or outrageously expensive. Here, people think something is wrong with you if you haven't hurled yourself off a precipice of some sort. So we did. Photos to come later this week.

This is Bill Surfing the World's Smallest Wave

"The Plan" got thrown out the window as soon as we arrived in Bondi Beach, on the eastern outskirts of Sydney. There would be no flight to Perth and up the west coast to snorkle with whale sharks. The idea of driving up the eastern coast to Brisbane got axed as well. Bondi was going to be our only destination for 10 days.

"But you must go to Manly," some people said. "And you should eat at the harbour by the Opera House." We will, next time. For ten days we ran and swam along the coast, took surfing lessons, and generally did very little.

In reality, we did pull ourselves into Sydney proper for an Australian Rules Football match - last year's champions the Sydney Swams lost in a nailbiter - and we took a wine tour of the Hunter Valley. But for the most part, we could be found at or near the beach. That doesn't lend itself to a slew of fantastic photos, but we'll post a few shortly.