Statistics: 1,781 photos taken 1,635 kilometers driven in the campervan in New Zealand 232 video clips taken 23 days away from home 12 airline flights 10 SCUBA dives total (including 1 off Catalina Island in California and 9 on the Great Barrier Reef) 9 pieces of luggage (checked and carry-on) lugged around for 3 weeks 8 items of clothing purchased on the trip (only 1 of those was for Nicole) 7 towns slept in (all in the campervan) during visit to New Zealand 6 modes of transportation (automobile-car, campervan, pickup truck, taxi; boat-inboard, ferry; bus-city, shuttle, tour; plane-jet, propeller, wire; train-light rail; walking) 5 time zones (Australia Eastern Standard, Australian Eastern Daylight, New Zealand Standard, US Eastern Standard, US Pacific Standard) 4 types of bodies of water (fjord, lake, ocean, river) 3 different countries and currencies 2 checked bags allowed to take to New Zealand (after attempting to take 4) 1 accident in the campervan (gale-force wind blew Nicole’s door into the camper parked next to us) 0 cup holders in the campervan Itinerary: 18 Dec 07: fly from Baltimore to Los Angeles take airport taxi to Irvine, California 19 Dec: take a ferry to Catalina Island SCUBA dive in the kelp forest 20 Dec: explore San Diego, Point Loma, and La Jolla, California 21 Dec: explore Hollywood, California 22 Dec: explore Hollywood 23 Dec: fly from Los Angeles to Sydney 25 Dec: land in Sydney (after skipping Christmas Eve due to crossing the International Date Line) fly to Cairns, Australia 26-28 Dec: dive on the Great Barrier Reef (spend one night on the boat) visit the Daintree Rainforest 29 Dec: fly to Sydney 30-31 Dec: explore Sydney (including New Year’s Eve fireworks in Sydney harbor) 1 Jan 08: fly to Christchurch, New Zealand 2 Jan: drive from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo 3 Jan: drive from Lake Tekapo to Mt. Cook go stargazing to learn about the southern sky 4 Jan: take a plane ride and land on the Tasman Glacier drive from Mt. Cook to Wanaka 5 Jan: drive from Wanaka to Manapouri 6 Jan: drive from Manapouri to Milford Sound take a cruise of Milford Sound spend the night next to a river (we could hear the water in our campervan) 7 Jan: drive from Milford Sound to Queenstown 8 Jan: fly from Queenstown to Sydney explore Sydney and spend the night above a brewery in The Rocks 9 Jan: walk halfway across the Harbor Bridge fly from Sydney to Los Angeles in the afternoon cross the International Date Line land in Los Angeles in the morning hang out in Hollywood take the red eye to the east cost 10 Jan: back home in Bowie