A whirlwind trip

We're in Corvallis, catching our breath from a bit of a whirlwind trip around New Zealand. 20 days is not enough time to catch up with all of our friends and family, but we gave it a shot. Thanks so much to everyone for tolerating our hurried visits.

In Northland we caught up with a lot of family, and met some more. The Kiwis had a great time educating the northern hemisphere rellies on the finer points of NZ Christmas etiquette - lunch was outside, as it should be. Snow was a very dirty word.

We managed to get over to Mahia and spend a couple of days performing extensive chair and beer testing activities, catching up with many friends. When we were leaving, the sun came out:

Then we went haring down to Palmerston North (stopping off briefly in Haumoana), slept, then on to Wellington (more friends to see). It was with great pleasure we learned that the NZ craft beer situation has been significantly improving. Even Manfred appreciated Hashigo Zake cult beer bar in Wellington.

The last couple of days were spent in Palmerston North with family and friends. We spent some time with Spyro, and the whole trip finished up with an awesome pot-luck BBQ.