OKOKOKOKOKOK. Guess what?! Katherine comes in 2 days!!!!! WHOA! That'll just be a ball and a half. Then, as though it could get more fun, Jodi comes in 9 days. Rockstar.

Maggie and I completed our hike through paradise only slightly worse for the wear because it rained most days. But it was beautiful, nonetheless, and pictures from it are posted, if you are more of a visual person. My favorite thing was making friends with people in the campsites each night and then all sort of moving through the hike as a group. We met this guy, Gerald, who is from Germany and is riding his bicycle around the whole of New Zealand. He is doing it because he feels like biking is the perfect speed to watch the world go by. Since NZ is the tiniest, a few days later we passed a couple from our camp grounds hitchhiking near Carolyn's house, so we drove them an hour toward their destination for good traveler's karma. Being the hardcore backpackers that we are, Maggie and I left for the trip equipped with 6 christmas mince pies, which had to be eaten quickly given their considerable weight. Speaking of christmas mince pies, how gross do those sound?? Very. But in truth they are marvelous, like a fig newton on steroids, in a pie, without the pretense of "healthy eating."

Since the hike we have been back at Carolyn's. I swear we'll get around to seeing more of NZ soon. But we are still here because it rules. For example, here was yesterday:

I woke up to Sweet Maggie Smile, we ate a leisurely breakfast in our little mountain cottage. There has been a mysterious white thing on the only bare patch of rock on the facing mountain that we have noticed for a month now, only on sunny days. We refer to this white thing as "White Thing" and finally our fear that it was a creepy white-robed man staring at us everyday drove us to pull out the binoculars that dad forced me to bring (thanks, daddy) and learn that White Thing is a mountain goat!! Not only is White Thing a mountain goat, but he has a Brown Thing friend that we never noticed! So now we can wake up in the morning and say hello to White Thing instead of yelling about his eerie mystery.

Anyway, post breakfast we received a Lentz Family package and gleefully put together the christmas tree they sent and ate Reese's Cups. Thank you so much, Lentzes, you made our day!!Then we worked in the garden for a few hours. Carolyn has started referring to her garden as her "grounds" because they are starting to look posh and polished. The transformation has been so fun to take part in. We actually feel proud of our work when we look at her garden. Then we all drove to town for Christmas shopping. Got pizzas, ate dinner, then made christmas mince pies from scratch! Then we had hot pie and red wine while we watched a movie. It was cold and rainy, which is all wrong for summer, but all right for Christmas. On the drive home a hedgehog ran in front of our car! I've only ever seen one in a cage in Hunter's room! So that was great.

We've decorated the tree at their house, and Carolyn and her family invited us to spend Christmas with them, which is too kind an offer to resist. In the meantime, we'll go grab Katherine and climb a glacier, before coming back to Carolyn's on Christmas Eve.

I miss you for Christmas, family! It still isn't right to be wearing shorts and sunscreen while Santas ring bells on the street. Merry Christmas, everyone!