Marlborough Sound Taken from Tisa's original journal entry: Cook Straight/Marlborough Sound-The ferry took us across the Cook Straight when we traveled from the North to the South island. The boat ride was very enjoyable, relaxing and provided us with a great opportunity to talk with some local kiwis. We were surprised that the ride wasn’t as rough as was we had heard but had fun swaying back and forth on the decks. The total trip time was about 3 hours but it all went by so fast. It was fun driving our camper van onto the lower deck of the boat where everyone parked their car in a compact yet organized manner. After the boat set sail, we were not able to return to our cars. To our surprise, the facilities were super nice with comfortable couches, a formal bar area, cafeteria, separate rooms with beds in them and free coffee and tea! The most magnificent part of the ride was the last 30 minutes. As we began to approach Marlborough Sound, the ferry slowed down as we made our way through the tall, rich green, soft looking mountains. They towered over us on every side and you could not see past them. The speed of the ferry is regulated so that the wake produced does not erode the mountainside. Unfortunately, the shores have all been washed up due to ferries going too fast or even too slow. This shows how close to the mountains you are as you drive through them. It is a breathtaking site and has been one of my favorite activities of this trip.

Christchurch Taken from Tisa's original journal entry: Christchurch- (population: 331,400) This city is described as the most English of NZ cities. A grand Anglican cathedral sits in the center of the city, trolleys and trams run through the square while the Avon River runs alongside it. Kevin and I really enjoyed this town for many reasons. For one, our campsite was in a great location near downtown. It had clean facilities, we were able to park 10 feet away from the restroom (which means a lot when its late at night and the last thing you want to do is get up to use the restroom) and we even purchased a “Top 10 Holiday Park” Discount Card that got us a discount for the first and following nights of our stay there. I highly recommend that if anyone runs into an offer of purchasing this card, that they do so. The Top 10 Holiday Parks is an association with campgrounds all over New Zealand and even some in the U.S. They are the best of the best and are always clean, safe, accommodating, generally good locations and usually have a spa, heated pool or internet for an additional fee. At most of the campgrounds you are able to get a cabin or personal room. With this card, we are also able to get discounts at certain participating restaurants, hotels, adventure activities and more. Secondly, we loved the service we received while dining out and using the internet cafes! One of our best meals on this trip was found at an Indian restaurant called Mayur that Kevin took me to on a date. Actually, we ate Indian food 4 times within 3 days because it was so tasty. We also had another fine dining experience in the town square. The best thing about New Zealand is that if you want to have a really nice dinner at an upscale restaurant, you are able to afford it because compared to the states, it is only about ½ of what you would pay over there. Regarding the internet cafes, Christchurch had the cheapest ones over any other city in NZ. We found one that was warm and cozy, had a wide variety of drinks, pastries and sandwiches, and was quiet and had a relatively fast connection. Lastly, we really enjoyed the overall character of the town. One night in the middle of downtown, a sports company set up an event where you could snowboard (with a stunt jump), drink beer and listen to music. There are lots of alternative kids here, as any town in NZ, and the city has a very lively feel to it. We even attended a Jazz concert at the Anglican cathedral but were a little disappointed with the performance. There is a lot to explore in this town by simply walking the streets. The church was beautiful as was all the surrounding art and nature of Christchurch.

Nantandola Beach Benny was one of the guys working as a security guard our hotel and for whatever reason, we quickly became friends with him. Since he had a day off, we asked him if he'd like to go on a day trip with us and our new friend from Germany, Stefanie Fischer (Steffi). He gladly accepted and guided me towards a local hot spot (though completely non-touristy), Nantandola Beach. We brought along a bunch of picnic-like food, did some snorkeling, and otherwise just hung out with one of the locals. We felt slightly bad after the trip as it was evident that he was really hoping to get money out of us, but we weren't about to give him any. We had hoped that he genuinely just wanted to hang out with us, and while he probably did, he definitely was hoping to profit from it too.

New Zealand Tunnelweb Spider This is just a short little blurb about an encounter I had with a New Zealand Tunnelweb Spider. To anyone who knows me, it's a well known fact that I am more or less terrified by most anything of the arachnid variety. It's entirely an irrational fear, this I know, but I can't seem to get over it for whatever reason. Thankfully, I think spiders are about the only things that I am afraid of. One relatively warm evening while still living in my flat in Dunedin, I strolled into my bathroom (or toilet) for a quick pee break. So far there was nothing unusual about this sudden urge to urinate. I began peeing and as I looked down to my left, just near the upright shower, was a GIANT New Zealand Tunnelweb spider. Now that I was in a state of complete terror, not to mention mid-stream, instinct kicked in and I immediately stopped my flow and jumped about 6 foot to my left far, far out of harms way. Once I calmed down a bit, I ran to get my camera and though I usually get pretty close to the subject in my nature pics, I kept my distance for this one. These were zoom lens all the way. I tossed an American Quarter on the ground near the spider to give it some perspective. FYI: an American Quarter is just under an inch in diameter. This spider clearly spawned about 2.25 of them. Though the Tunnelweb is about the size of a Tarantula, like the Tarantula, it is not poisonous. Don't confuse it's name with the Australian Funnelweb spider. It, on the other hand, is deadly. Also like our Tarantula, however, this spider can inflict a very painful bite if provoked to do so. If you look between the small front two legs, you can see the very large black fangs touching the ground below. After this whole encounter (with death itself), I did a bunch of research on the particular spider. Though I had seen them around outside, I had not seen one in my bathroom, but that is apparently somewhat normal. As I read, every so often a Tunnelweb spider will find his way into a house and when it does, it becomes severely dehydrated (usually to the point of death). The spider will immediately seek out a source of water with it's sensing tools and this usually lands it either in the bathroom or the laundry room. Apparently sometimes they are able to sustain themselves for awhile in the bathroom as they can live off of the leftover humidity from showers, and drops of water on the floor. Usually though, they wither and die pretty quickly. This one was obviously somewhat resourceful.

Jack the Snake Tracy's class had the privilege of getting to keep a corn snake with them for a week or so. The little guy went by the name of Jack and was a hoot to play with. I got to go up to the class one day after the kids were gone and play with him for an hour or so. I haven't had a lot of experience with snakes and while I'd imagine they get boring after some time, it was at very least interesting to handle a snake for awhile.

Phoenix LNC Meeting In a rather rare show, the Libertarian National Committee decided to hold one of the quarterly LNC meetings at a resort in Phoenix, Arizona. I absolutely loved the place and had a really amazing time - in addition to the work we did. Unfortunately Libertarians are generally synonymous with incredibly cheap complainers. I can't imagine the resort was especially thrilled to have us when complaints were lodged with virtually every meal, drink, and perk we enjoyed. All of that said, I had a great time hanging out with the LNC members that I spend most of my time with. I was also elected to be the chair of a committee that would finally rebuild the Libertarian Party's website.

Saying Goodbye to Atters While headed to Barcelona to spend the next month with my good buddy Ben traveling across Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, and Italy, I left little Atters with my friend Joanna. She was living with a few roommates at the time and wanted some privacy of her own. Not to mention, her house was about a 30 minute drive from her office on the UT campus whereas my house was just as 5 minute drive from that office. So she stayed at my house and watched Atti while I was galavanting around the globe with Ben.

The STL Treehouse This was a pretty fun project. The Iowa room was built with a loft in it. The room wasn't especially suitable for a loft, but the owner of the house built a loft in each bedroom to create more space. It was built by hand and there was a wooden latter, literally fashioned with 2x4s, that was used to get into the bed. The room also has two giant windows in it and given Jordan's nightshift schedule, it was extremely difficult for her to get any good sleep in there during the day. One evening I quickly drew up some plans one evening, purchased everything I needed at Home Depot, and got to work on a solution. I had already ordered some blackout curtains and so I framed out the top of the loft in the same fashion one would frame out a wall. I ran the wiring into the bed area as necessary, complete with remote controlled switches, and then sealed it shut with the blackout curtains (having to cut them up rather significantly so they'd fit). Finally, there was just a hole where the ladder was and this still let quite a bit of light bleed through. So I fashioned a trap door out of MDF, added a pulley and a counter-weight, and voila, the Treehouse was born. It provided a wonderful, comfortable, and dark quarters for sleeping and I'm told helped Jordan's sleep rather significantly.

Nick with the Philosophers A man has become one with a statue in a park.They are all taking turns with a book. The man has his hand out for his turn amd they are all enjoying this interaction. Leave it to Nick to strike up a conversation with the philosophers at Philosopher's Rock at Barton Springs.

Maria R Tracy Adams Kevin Ludlow A girl with brunette long hair and brown eyes with her left arm around a guy with brunette hair and blue eyes. Both are smiling and appear to be happy. She has a small necklage on with small brown stones. She is also wearing either a wrist watch or bracelet on her left wrist. There is another girl only seen from the side to the left of the couple described above. She also has long curly brunette hair.