Hobbits, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Wizards and Cyrus

Last night Cyrus and his girlfriend Tanya left Perth on their way to New Zealand.  They are stopping in Melbourne for about 12 hours first before actually flying to Auckland.  As of the time I'm writing this they have already been in Melbourne for several hours and last we heard Cyrus was about to go on a mission to find a Starbucks; not hard in Melbourne but literally impossible in Perth.   They are going to be in New Zealand for about 10 days.  That's something that is reasonable to do when you live in Australia but if you live in a northern nation like, let's say Canada, you need at least a month in the country to justify a 30+ hour flight.

Tanya's father and one of her sisters live in New Zealand so she goes back there every once in a while to visit.  This time she has company.  While they're in New Zealand they're going to be staying with Tanya's father near Auckland.  They're also going to visit her sister in Wellington.  They plan on doing the usual touristy stuff as well while there: touring around, dipping in the hot springs, enjoying nature, possibly some extreme sports (i.e. bungy), battling Sauron's forces of evil to save the Shire, etc.

Of course, we have several different layers of mixed emotions about this trip.  We are happy for Cyrus that he is going to New Zealand but we are a little nervous that it's his first big trip without us.  We are excited that he gets to experience a new country but we are jealous that we don't get to go too (yet).  We are proud that he is growing up and starting to experience the world on his own but we don't want to let our baby go.  We are sad that we will miss him but happy that we have one less bottomless stomach to feed.

We are going to use this as an opportunity.  Cyrus will be our scout into New Zealand and hopefully he will report back with some details.  Nadia and I are very keen on visiting New Zealand as we've heard some very positive stories about the country and the people that live there.  We are actually considering two seperate trips to New Zealand: one to explore the major tourist destinations (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hobbittown, etc.) and the other to do some world class trekking on New Zealand's south island.  New Zealand is at or near the top of our "places to visit" list.  I can't wait to hear about Cyrus' trip both out of interest for his trip and for completely selfish reasons.