DECEMBER 23 - FEBRUARY 6, 2002: We ski.  Lots.  We snowshoe. We cross-country ski.  Heather snowboards.  Twice. Oakley (our dog) remembers us.  Eventually, he forgives us for the 11 weeks when we were gone.  He thinks it's over.  He has no idea. 

We have come up with a name for this elongated honeymoon of ours: The Year Of Living Ridiculously.  On February 7th we leave for New Zealand and 15 more weeks of travel.  Back in the US just in time for summer.

We found that many of the places and activities we enjoyed the most during the first leg of our travel were suggestions from many of you, so: keep them coming.  If you haven't told us already, email us (alex@ooms.net) with your experiences in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Tibet, Nepal, China or anywhere else in the region you think we should go.  Or better: come join us. 

Face it: You need a vacation; we need a reality check.

on to new zealand...