Our trip here to New Zealand was really difficult, because we were changed to 1ST CLASS, and the difficult part was learning how to work all the "buttons and bells", individual TV's, headphones, lounge chairs,, footrest, gourmet food (including raw fish), and all the attention from the "New Zealand men stewards" (who were great). Oh well, it is really a great way to travel.

We had a short stop in the Cook Islands, and it so reminded us of Am. Samoa, hot, humid, beautifully green and the smell of the ocean. We had instant flashbacks that were wonderful.

Landed here in New Zealand on Tues. at 11:15 and Sally was waiting with her big smile and hug for us. It took us a couple of days to acclimate and now we are off to see favorite spots of Dick's each day. He spent much time calling and was able to arrange some meetings with some of the people he knew from 48 years ago - AMAZING, and exciting for him.

Tomorrow we leave Sally's to see other parts of the island and will spend a couple of days with Sally's sister, Cindy, and her husband at the beach home on the east coast of NZ. It is proving to be as exciting as we both expected and we are having a great time with Sally and Grahame.

We went to the west coast today and saw the Tasmanian Sea with its black sandy beaches. The black sand comes from the iron ore in the sand. It was so beautiful and we loved walking in the sand barefoot, and watching the waves come in. It was hard to leave.

We will not be able to post pictures until we get to Tonga and can use our own computer, but we will do that then.

Remember our phone is working here and you can call us as if we were in Boise. We'd love to hear from all of you.

All our love, Dad and Mom