This month's National Geographic has an article on Tongariro National Park in New Zealand. If your Mother-in-law doesn't supply you with a subscription (membership in NG parlance) like mine does you can check it out here. Just a short text and then the photos are pretty great. Almost as great as mine!

Our friend Erika came over today and took some pregnancy photos of Michelle, a few with me too. They are on Michelle's Facebook so make sure you check them out if you are friends with her. If you are friends with me I tagged the ones with me so then you should be able to find them, if interested. For the rest of you, here is a photo of Mt Doom that I took four years ago now and sorta forgot about. But it's nice, eh? Mt Doom was played by Mt Ngaurahoe in Tongariro National Park. New Zealand, yo! Didn't it erupt recently? One of them did I think. Maybe Ruapehu?

Due to the International uh . . . what's it called? Dateline? My brains is all fuzzy because I am still awake from yesterday. Well, it's actually tomorrow down in New Zealand right now. Whoa timewarp- definitely a paradox. Which means it's time to celebrate the birthday of one of my best mates, the vampirenomad! Happy birthday! A little over two years ago we packed up the Woodsy Crypt, said farewell to F.A.N., threw a couch over the balcony, left Ted in charge and made our way to Malaysia and New Zealand. After a few months I came home and eventually got married, while gabrielle lived up to the nomadic part of her nickname and stayed behind. I've been going through my journal trying to find a good story to tell from the trip, but there's too many. Wedge. Why Wedge was Named Wedge. Why He Could Have Been Named Leak. Barefoot cinema patrons. The town square hexagon in Dunedin. Whales. Dolphins. Sea turtles. Dangerously inept diving-school classmates. Fell beasts. One Rings and One Ringgits. Coppelia. Tongariro. Hobbiton. "Hey it's a gay bus tour!" and "Oh, my mates stayed behind to do each others' hair". Kura Tawhiti. The Twizel Office of Development (as well as its famous bakery where the menu is apparently just for show). Cheep birds. Kea birds. Sheep- so many sheep. I could go on and on and not even scratch the surface of the good times we had- and that's not even getting into the Woodsy Crypt era. Happy Birthday Lt. Nixon! I still haven't located Private Blythe- he remains MIA. Winters out.

Mordor 

Tongariro National Park isn't actually the abode of the dread Lord Sauron, nor is it a land of shadows, so much. For a few days it was a land of fog and rain, but even that cleared up to allow me two amazing, cloud-free days of hiking near Mt Doom, aka Mt. Ngaurohoe (or something like that- I am going by memory here). Also in the vicinty is Mt Ruapehu, also a volcano, and a third one a bit farther off that I caught a glimpse of as I hiked back to Wedge and the girls. Mt. Ngaurohoe was used as the template for Mt Doom, and digitally altered to make it more doomy. Pretty cool in real life still, though. I just got back from an overnight hike and I'm sore and tired, so my usual stunning wit and intellect are dulled somewhat- I wil return later to tell you some fascinating things I learned about Maori legends.