Feb 1, 2005 | New Zealand

NZ's weather might be even sketchier than San Francisco's. The shots with bright sunshine and blue skies are my favorites, probably because those days were rare. Otherwise, the climate seemed to turn on a dime. My hosts were Remy and Monica, who I met 10 years earlier in Madagascar (and whose daughter Zoe is my godchild). They let me use their home in Auckland as a base for traveling around the north and south islands on my own. Tried doing it via bus and train, but those systems are as extensive and as efficient as the ones in the U.S., so I had to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road.