Two relaxing weeks visiting my family in New Zealand have gone by too quickly, and I'll be returning to South America on Friday. I haven't visited my parents here in five years, mainly because it is so difficult and so expensive to get here... but it's worth it: New Zealand really is an island paradise. I will always prefer to live in big cultural centers like São Paulo (I don't think I could ever survive in one-movie-theater city like Nelson, where my parents live, no matter how charming and international it is) but a remote place like this definitely has its appeal.

The plus side to the mind-numbing five-flight return trip is that I'm breaking it up with four days in Cabo Polonia (Uruguay) and a week in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Time to brush off my very rusty español.

[I took this picture on the six-hour mountainous drive from Nelson to Christchurch.]