As I was looking in the mirror the other day I epiphanied that the life of a single guy is a lot like one really long camping trip. One's grooming rapidly becomes more "rustic" and bare bones functional. One's level of personal hygiene plummets a bit and the general tidiness index of your crib drops a few (thousand) notches.  And the 3 second rule?  Fa-get-about-it. 

Last Sunday I drove about 50 miles into the mountains to Arthur Pass.   A super scenic drive despite the rain. Up a wide river valley along rolling green pastures dotted with metric tons of sheep. Then a really really steep last 10 kilometers and UNDER a bridge with a pretty good sized stream gushing over the top. The pass is a gassy little valley that boarders the tree line. Not content to just drive on the wrong side of the road up a windy rainy mountain road eye ball to eye ball with death every inch (centimeter) of the way I also had to tramp (that's what they call hiking in N.Z.) 3 more miles up a mountain trail in a driving rain to a ski lodge for a cup of tea and a pint of beer then back home for another cooking adventure.  I tried to include some pictures but I'm not sure if they will work.

Also up high on the pass they have these mountain parrots called Keas.  They are supposed to be endangered but they were all over the place.  Very inquisitive and fearless little buggers.  They come right up to you.  On and in your car just to check things out.   Little genius birds.  There are a couple of u-tubes on them you should watch.

And FYI water swirls clockwise down here.