Wednesday, July 13th

Today was a free day and our students got to enjoy some time off to rest, explore the area, catch up on laundry, etc.

The day had plenty of news, however:

A big dump of snow in the Southern Alps is once again forcing us to shift our course schedule around.  This after the “warmest winter in 50 years” and “no snow” in the weeks before our students arrived!

There was a fire at Hinewai the afternoon after we left the reserve. We saw (and drove through) the swiftly moving lightning storm that started it as we left the Okains Bay area on Tuesday.  We spoke with Hugh Wilson on Wednesday evening after firefighters were able to contain and extinguish the blaze around 4pm and he was in good spirits considering all that had occurred.

The price of tomatoes is up to $14.99/kilo. Where we might pay $5 for a container of tomatoes  when they are “expensive,” here the same container runs $8.99.

Speaking of expensive, gas is still expensive this side of the world.  It costs almost $100 to fill up a tank for a mini-van.

And, New Zealand is facing similar economic conditions as in the USA.  This week, the government is in the process of debating implementing a capital gains tax.


-m&m