The Count Down bigins - 10 weeks left in Afghanistan

 

RandR was amazing in New Zealand.  We thought we would take advantage of the military sending us somewhere we have never been.  We only get 15 days of vacation a year while deployed but travel days do not count.  With five days on each end of travel, I extended my vacation as much as possible.  When I landed Kevin was only waiting a day so it worked out well and we drove around

 almost the entire South Island. 

The beaches were nice, after being in Afghanistan I could hear every bird, smell every flower.  It was so nice.  But the water is cold.  Hawaii has spoiled us.

 

The lakes were crystal blue.

 We did alot of hiking around, I felt so free.  There are were no dangerous animals or taliban to harm us:)

 This was our favorite picnic spot along the Routeburn trail that we hiked for three days.  It looked like china mans hat in Hawaii.  We hiked in four bottles of wine and cheese and crackers, my fav.

 There were sheep everywhere.  Actually way more sheep then there are people.

 We made a joke that waterfalls in NZ are like rainbows in Hawaii, everywhere you look.

This was along the Routeburn trail.  Even though it was rainy on days, we enjoyed it.  This pic reminds me of a weather job I want after retirement.  I hike around in bad weather and give weather reports.