The journey begins - purchased a truck.

Been away for a little while . . .

This is a typical New Zealand 'State highway'



This is a 1956 Ford Mk1 Zephyr I drove around in for an afternoon, apart from having no power steering, it's quite the little driver for a 2.4L, 3 on the tree classic that gets a lot of attention from folks that either 'used to have one', or 'Dad had one', or 'my children were conceived on the back seat of one of these'



Random scenery . . .



More random scenery - NZ does boast an impressive range of flora and fauna unique to the little island group that it is.



And below, is the unfortunate reason why I returned for two and a half weeks. It's Dad's Mitsubishi Galant after being T-boned by another vehicle at highway speeds.



August 23rd Dad had an accident - he had pulled to the shoulder on a 2 - lane road to allow traffic to pass before making his turn. Unfortunately, he missed the vehicle travelling over the blind hill behind him and got hit - hard.

Though the roads are opposite, steering wheel on the other side, it still bears out the same. The other driver walked away and didn't press charges (I wonder if he was maybe distracted or travelling a little fast to warrant that election, though it matters not - just glad Dad's fault didn't cause another injury/fatality).

Dad is 73. They cut him from the wreck, he walked to the helicopter, but collapsed thereafter. Eleven broken ribs, collar bone, and a punctured lung. A week in an induced coma. By all rights - I should have been attending a funeral. He's real lucky.

I timed the visit to see him out of the rehabilitation center following a couple of weeks in general ward, and 2 weeks in ICU. He's up and about now - and serendipity, if you can call it that, found lung cancer following a scan that otherwise would not have been detected. Surgery in a couple of days to hopefully remove it.

I spent the time visiting at rehabilitation, ferrying him to doctors visits, cleaning up around the house, cooking, cleaning and liasing with other family members going forward.

Nice thing about O/O - I've been off work for a month, paid for flights and a rental car outright, and nobody to answer to if you have to take care of emergencies.

Back to work tonight - hope you are all doing well. Blair.