Well, I'm back from down under. After 23 days and 12 flights, I am glad to be home. The group that I traveled with was quite friendly, and our tour director was superb. I am extremely happy that I went.
New Zealand and Australia are both very beautiful, and also quite unique. Both countries contain a vast amount of unspoiled land. Australia has the outback, and New Zealand has the beautiful Southern Alps. At the same time, the two countries combined make up only one tenth the population of the United States, while having nearly the same landmass as the lower 48 states. In fact, sheep outnumber Australians 5 to 1, and Kiwis (not just the name of the fruit, but also of the bird and people) 10 to 1.
In three weeks, I took just over 3600 pictures. I am working on posting them, but first I need to revamp my methods of doing so. It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to manage my photos, so I am in the process of creating a small piece of software to allow me to better manage them, and the rest of my web site. It will also provide the framework for the next iteration of the site itself, whenever I get around to redoing it! At any rate, hopefully the pictures will be posted soon.