Goodbye New Zealand

Our time in New Zealand is coming to an end. As of this writing, we have less than a week left until we depart. It's been a great year. I'm going to have fond memories of New Zealand...

We arrived here with hopes of exploring a beautiful country and immersing ourselves into a new culture. New Zealand didn't disappoint. The highlights for me: the 4 day Milford Track hike, helicopter landing onto a glacier, bungy jumping & mountain biking with Reinaker, climbing a volcano, driving the south island with my family, and sailing in the Bay of Islands. It was great to explore Australia as well: Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, Melbourne, Adelaide and Kangaroo Island, and a recent trip to the Gold Coast and Fraser Island (blog post on that pending... our computer broke and won't allow us to upload pictures). Every time we set out on another adventure, there was always excitement knowing there would be some new experience to take in or sight to see. I love that feeling....maybe I'm addicted.

All the beauty in New Zealand couldn't capture us for more than this year, though.
After a while, we began to miss the comforts of home, friends, family, and our dog. I've had a number of people suggest "the time must have flow by." That really hasn't been the case. I remember not being able to sleep while camping at Niagara Falls and writing that first blog post. That seems like ages ago. Time flies when you are in your groove and things are comfortable. While our time here was great, it was undoubtably different than life back home. We had to learn a new culture, jobs, and lifestyle. That somehow made life slow down. And in many ways, that's a good thing. Dana's job didn't require nearly the amount of hours as residency and my job was flexible, so we took full advantage of the slower pace. I did a lot of reading, cooking, photography, hiking, swimming, and mountain biking that I wouldn't have been able to fit into my previous life. But the life of semi-leisure doesn't suit me long term. Call me crazy but I have missed the challenge and productiveness of life in the US. As they say: "the grass is always greener"...

So with a week left in New Zealand, its starting to feel like another page is turning in our lives. Over the past few years, we've developed a passion for travel. New Zealand has fostered this love for travel further.The next journey should be epic as we meander through Eastern and Central Europe for five weeks on our way back home: Istanbul Turkey, Athens Greece, Budapest Hungary, Vienna and Salzburg Austria, Munich Germany, Prague Czech Republic, Krakow and Warsaw Poland, then finally London England.

After that we're headed to Atlanta where we'll both be looking for new jobs. Dana says: "Never thought at 31 years old I'd be a physician and married.... and living in my parent's basement!" Never say never...
The blog is probably going to be on hold until we get back to the US at the end of September. We should have more stories and pictures to share from our trip. For anyone that bothered to keep up with the blog, thank you! Hopefully you enjoyed reading it half as much as much as I enjoyed putting it together.