When we left Fiji and returned to Auckland, Stacey (Dave's daughter) and Craig (her boyfriend) took us in and took care of us during our last few days in New Zealand. We are all so glad that we met them and we will be sure to keep in touch. I cannot explain how thankful I am for their kindness. As travelers, we end up relying on the kindness of strangers at times and as a result appreciate it all the more. But, the kindness that Stacey, Craig and co. showed us was above and beyond anything we could have imagined. They took us in as their family and we will never forget it.
We have learned so much on this trip about traveling, the world, and ourselves. New Zealand is an amazing country. It has so much preserved natural beauty that is accessible to the public. Where else in the world could you see penguins running on the beach? Where else could you see glaciers on a warm, sunny day? We were able to see scenes with endless mountains in the back ground, sheep in the fore ground and never be more than 1 1/2 hours from the ocean. New Zealand is wonderful for its natural beauty but is made even more amazing for the people that live and travel there. We met so many wonderful inspiring people that have enjoyed the places and the feelings of being there as much as we did. The backpacker culture there was so great. It enabled us to have many homes with temporary families and to be able to learn from other travelers about the places where they were from and have been. we met people from Germany, Sweden, Hungary, England, Taiwan, Japan, etc. We had many fascinating conversations learning and teaching others about what our lives and cultures are like. Some people we met were on around-the-world trips and others came to New Zealand to live and work. It was a really great trip and I'm grateful that we were able to do something like this. I hope to hold on to the things that I learned there and to return to New Zealand some day.
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