Greetings from a VRBO in Riverton, a windblown town at the southern tip of the South Island. As I write this rain lashes the windows. We are very cozily tucked up with our backs against a wood fire, potatoes in the oven and lamb chops ready to go in the pan.

It POURED rain the first night we arrived in Milford Sound. The waterfalls the next morning were CRAZY, pouring off all the cliffs. We finally got off the boat just after lunch with a break in the rain. We met the locals, got some diesel, and tramped around the vicinity getting a good look around, as well as some Wifi at the lodge. With the wifi came the message that it was not really optional; we needed to get our medicals done by February 19th if we wanted to stay in NZ past February 25th. After about an hour we had sorted medicals, blood tests, chest x-ray appointments, a mooring for Banyan, a bus from Milford, and a rental car between Te Anau and Invercargill. Whew! It was maybe the most productive hour we’ve executed in a while.

So, 24 hours later, here we are. A huge ‘thank you’ to Michele Herald who sent us a very useful email with info containing medical provider locations and most importantly the information that Invercargill was closer to us than Queenstown (news to us). By Friday we should be heading out of here having been poked and prodded and radiated and hopefully given a pass to stay in New Zealand at least until we can leave by boat safely after cyclone season.

That’s basically the update so the following are photos that would have gone with the last several posts if we were able to attach them. Thank you so much for following our journey, for commenting on the blog, and for sending up prayers for safety.