Countdown?

Its funny that all of my New Zealand friends (that I haven't met, just online) have been warning me about the bitter cold on the South Island during the winter. I have been gorging myself on all weather related information about New Zealand. Now I know there is nothing nice about being cold and wet and it sounds like that is exactly what I'll be in for in my new homeland. However, I truly believe that you take the good with the bad. Rain is the life-giving blood of the earth...yeah, it sucks when you are stuck in it but i'm sure New Zealand wouldn't be HALF as beautiful without the downpours...

Super green pastures (photo by lindreth..thanks!)

New Zealand type of Jurassic Park (photo by PharmD..thanks!)

Of course, you could have the alternative....

Red hills of Sedona, Arizona

Grand Canyon

This is my last week home in Phoenix. I have been packing, re-packing, un-packing and then packing again. It is hot outside...Not in a "cutesy" kind of way. It is oppressive, life-stealing, sizzling, painful heat. The kind of heat that makes your skin boil like hot oil just got put on it...The kind that evaporates sweat before it comes out of your sweat glands...Africa heat...like Tarzan couldn't stand this heat....like don't go out without 2L of water, SPF 1000 or between the hours of 9am-8pm kind of heat....
Temperatures this week hovered between 105-111 degrees F (Thats 41-43 degrees Celcius for my Kiwi kin)

Top number...outside temp at 5PM!!!!

and today was COOLER!

The desert has its own kind of beauty, but it does remind you in starkness and lack of vegetation that serious human settelement is DANGEROUS! There isn't enough water for the 4+ million people that live here or the ones that insist on maintaining lush green golf courses...I feel like one day, I'll turn on the tap and it'll be dry...
It is wild, rough and dry out here but it has been home for the past 5 years...

I think I'll take my chances in the rain! :)