Flight problems have been par for the course today, as engineering problems with the Air New Zealand plane delayed the 12-hour flight out of Auckland.  Connections were missed, despite a minimum of a 3-hour window of safety scheduled into their flight plans on arrival in LA.  Thankfully, the airline paid for the accommodations and meals of those stranded in LA, while others caught whatever flights would bring them closer to home.  40+ hours later, some of our group are still not quite home, but at least have called in from Toronto.

Those landing in Canada today were greeted by rain, freezing rain, hail, sleet, or snow.  Take your pick, but it looks nothing like New Zealand up here.  At least the new snow is pretty and a change of scenery.  Florida – bah!  They've got gators!

Meanwhile, still in New Zealand, here is another report from Whitey's Wheelabout which confirms for the first time that the Ice took 5th place at the World Wheelchair Games:

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Hello from Franz Joseph Glacier,

Kerri and I have made through an exciting week of rugby with the Canadian Nordiques finishing 2nd to the host New Zealand team and Canada Ice finishing a proud 5th.  The Ice had several 1 and 2 point losses to strong teams.  We improved as the tournament went on and that was one of the goals.

The 4-hour train from Christchurch to Greymouth was a non-stop ride of fantastic scenic backdrops of mountains, rivers, farm fields and sheep.  We picked up our car in Greymouth and were surprised to see it had a manual transmission.  The adventure of driving began!

Kerri adjusted well, only turning the wipers on for the first ten turns.  The wiper switch is situated were the turn signal would be back home.  If you can imagine us getting a little lost, me looking at the map upside down and sideways trying to get my bearings straight, and Kerri driving with the wipers on and me reminding her to turn right into the left lane all at the same time it was too funny.

The drive to the Franz Joseph Glacier was a drive like no other.  Our first view was the Tasman Sea on our right and mountains on our left.  As we drove, we were constantly being amazed at the scenery.  Mountains, rivers, glaciers, and then heading into the rain forest.  We basically traveled through all four seasons in six hours.

We are heading to Queenstown to be adventurous today – can’t wait.

Have a good day.

— Mike —