The Farthest From Home We've Ever Been: Te Anau to Owaka

This morning, we said goodbye to our new friends, Mark and Amanda, and headed South around 10:30am. After driving along the “Scenic South Motorway” for a few hours, we reached Invercargill, and about a half hour later, Bluff.

Here in New Zealand, “From Reinga to Bluff” is an expression that means the whole of the country. As we've already been to Cape Reinga, the Northernmost point in NZ, we felt Bluff was a necessary photo op. So, we stopped at the signpost and got some guy named Sam to snap this shot:

Though Bluff isn't technically the Southernmost point in NZ (or even on the South Island), it's pretty much accepted as that. To think that we were further South than we'd likely ever be again, or actually further South than most people we know have been, was a neat thought. It will get cold again, tonight, as the air here is blowing right off the South friggin' Pole. That's DEEP South, ya'll.

So now we are headed North. This is the official beginning of our return home. The path to our parent's doorsteps will take us, over the next 5 days, through: Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Newark. But for tonight, we're at a lovely little hostel in a TINY little town called Split Level. It is the 3rd hostel on our trip that we seem to have completely to ourselves, regardless of us booking a double room or two bunks in a dorm.
It's very nice, after a week of solid driving, to know we are on the way back to the States, wiser and stronger than we were when we left. We are having hot rice bowls and soup for supper before hitting the road to Dunedin tomorrow.

The weather people are saying it will rain, so we're looking forward to another sunny day. We'll let you know how it went from a backpackers where we may be meeting up with Mark and Amanda again. See you then.