St. Paddy’s Day, Nelson style, originally uploaded by Mister Wind-Up Bird.

Janelle and I spent a leisurely afternoon at the charming Freehouse, a pub in a tiny church, complete with peaceful garden and huge yurt tent.

Meghan and Aaron join us in Picton, originally uploaded by Mister Wind-Up Bird.

You know why New Zealand feels like home? It’s because all the same people are here! We hung out with (brother) Tyson and (brother’s partner) Gillian in Wellington, where Tyson’s doing an internship at Weta Digital. And then in Picton, we were visited by (friend of the kommune) Aaron and (former roommate) Meghan, who are cycling around the South Island. Just before that, Janelle hopped up to North Island to visit her parents, who flew over from Australia, and once we ship the retina-ready version of a certain iPad app, Hendrik will meet up with his dad, visiting from Germany. It’s a chain of “You’re going to New Zealand, huh? You know, I kind of wanted to go there…”

Picton Marina in the Morning, originally uploaded by Mister Wind-Up Bird.

Hendrik and I headed out from the marina yesterday to spend the day hiking the Queen Charlotte Track. This is the marina that morning, where we set out the the trailhead by water taxi. Hard to believe the previous day there was a storm that stopped pretty much all sea and air traffic on the Cook Straight.

Though once we started slogging through the mud and broken trees, it became a bit easier to believe. Beautiful hike, though.