We returned from New Zealand yesterday – a 22 hour trip door to door – just in time for the Superbowl, which even I watched the last part of. Ouch.

Unlike my last far away trip (Burma) 2 years ago, I return this time energized and happy (rather than ill and disoriented). As I download my photos, I think that this time, I really mean it and I’m getting them off this flat screen to create another photo book, something to touch and feel. So I’ll be living in memory for a little while to come as I create all this. Works for me.

I have a lot to remember about our trip. 765 photos to sort through and tales to tell, which I’ll do here. I know that several of my friends are thinking about going or already planning to go, so maybe I should begin by getting out of the way, from the very beginning, the negatives. Here it is, a list of what’s NOT to like about New Zealand:

NOTHING.

Aotearoa. The discovery by humans of what is now known as New Zealand.

Kupe was one of the great early explorers in Polynesian and Maori oral history.

After weeks at sea Kupe’s wife Kuramarotine noticed the sun being reflected off a long bank of cloud just on the horizon, the classic indication of a land mass. “He Ao! He Ao Tea Roa” she cried out. And so Aotearoa has come to be known as ‘the land of the long white cloud’.

Painting by Sally Burton