Mr. Green's itinerary...

I'm taking Mr. Green to the North Island of New Zealand for the month of February.

New Zealand is a small country, with two parts, a north island and a south island, and it is located off the east coast of Australia (which is an enormous country). It is located on the Tasman Sea. Maybe you have heard of the Tasmanian Devil. That is an animal that lives in Tasmania, which is also on the Tasman Sea.

Here's the Tasmanian Devil cartoon character.

The real Tasmanian Devil is much more cuddly looking. It looks more like a cross between a little black bear and a guinea pig.

Where Mr. Green is going first is called Bethells Beach. It's an amazingly beautiful beach just west of Auckland, which is one of the largest cities in New Zealand.

Here is a photo of Bethells Beach. Actually the beach closest to you in the photo is called O'Neill's beach and the beach in the background is Bethells Beach. If you look very closely at Bethells Beach, you will see a cave in the rocks at the far end. When I'm there, I'll take a photo of Mr. Green in the cave.

Here is a map of the world showing where we are ... and where Mr. Green and I are going. It looks like it's about as far from Vancouver as a person can get!

And one other thing, New Zealand is in the Southern Hemisphere so the season is exactly the opposite of what we have here. When Mr. Green and I are there in February, it will be like August is here, warm and late summer.

Here is a photograph of New Zealand, taken from a satellite. It's hard to tell in the photo, but there are two islands. The split is about halfway down. A very expensive car ferry goes from North to South and back again.

Here is a map that just shows the top half of the north island and where Bethells Beach is. See that big island off to the east? That's called Great Barrier Island, and we are going there just two days after we arrive in New Zealand.