"It's a pretty big hole. Don't fall. Honestly."

We have been loving New Zealand and can't believe it's almost time to go home.

A few people have asked us what we've been doing for food, since we have a campervan. Typically, we cook our meals, eating out once every few days. We have a simple gas burner in the van. Sometimes if we're at a campsite they have other cooking facilities for us to use. Breakfast is often something simple like oatmeal or scrambled eggs and toast. Lunch is usually peanut butter and jelly. We don't have a refrigerator, so we're not able to keep meat. So, eggs have been our default protein. Our most common dish that we love is toasted bread, sliced tomato, fresh avocado, edam cheese, and fried eggs and salami. Every 4-5 days we'd do a short grocery trip. On these days we'll buy meat and have a nice meal, such as fillet with balsamic shallots, potatoes, and salad. And, of course, lots of good New Zealand wine.

So, after doing the Milford Track we've been keeping busy. Here's what we've been doing:

• Hiking above Lake Hawea -- After the Milford Track we headed north along the west coast of the South Island. The landscape was absolutely stunning. We stopped for the night at Lake Hawea, which isn't even mentioned in our guidebook, but which was gorgeous. We did a sweaty, steep hike above the treeline to expansive views of the turquoise lake and jagged mountains.
• Glacier hiking -- Franz Josef Glacier is one of New Zealand's largest. We strapped on crampons, grabbed an ice axe, and followed our guide up onto the glacier. The glacier was beautiful, all shades of blue. It was a very adventurous, fun day, as we scrambled up the ice, squeezed through tight cuts in the ice, crawled through tunnels. The quote above is from our guide -- she led us to a crevasse that we had to hop over. The hole fell hundreds of feet down.
• Marlborough Wine Region and Marlborough Sounds -- We then headed to the northern end of the South Island, where we took it easy for a few days. The Marlborough Wine Region is famous for its sauvignon blancs, so we spent a very fun day biking among the vineyards and stopping for tastings. The Sounds consists of hundreds of islands, coves, and bays. We found a secluded little cove to chill out in before heading to the North Island.
• Wellington and the North Island -- After 3 weeks in the South Island, arriving by 3-hour ferry to the North Island was a shock. It's much more built up with highways, towns, and even traffic. Wellington, the capital, is a big, modern city. But we still enjoyed it, visiting its National Museum and having a nice dinner.
• Tongariro Alpine Crossing -- Although overall the landscape isn't as beautiful as the South Island, the North Island does have some great spots. We stopped to do the Tongariro Crossing, the country's top 1-day hike. Unfortunately, gale force winds were coming in the afternoon, so we head to get up really early to complete the hike before the strong winds. Even when we were there, the winds kicked up to over 30 miles per hour -- pretty scary as we walked along the ridge of a crater to an active volcano!  Another disappointing factor was the thick clouds that obscured our view of everything at the top. For Lord of the Rings fans, this is near the site of Mount Doom - a perfectly conical volcano. We wanted to climb to its summit (a 3 hour sidetrip) but weren't able to because of the winds.
• Skydiving! -- We did this at Taupo, one of the world's top skydiving spots. This was one of the absolute most amazing things we've ever done -- 40 seconds of free-falling at 125 miles per hour. The feeling was indescribable, a rush like no other. We both wanted to hop back into the plane and go again.
• Rotorua -- This is the top tourist city in NZ, known for two things: indigineous Maori culture and geothermal activity. We spent our time relaxing in hot springs and taking part in a hangi, a traditional Maori feast
• Waitomo Caving -- Our last adventure of the trip. This was a lot of fun. We rappelled 85 feet into a huge cavern and then spent a couple hours caving -- squeezing through tight areas and crawling through small holes and tubing on the underground river. At the end we rock climbed 60 feet back to the surface.

The past 6 months have flown by. New Zealand was an awesome way to end our trip. Our Jucy Campa has truly felt like home to us, and we're sad to drop it off. We're now spending our last day in Auckland where we'll have a celebratory dinner. At 4:30AM tomorrow our 35 hour journey back to Boston begins!