Living vicariously

We haven't had time this past week to enjoy the outdoors much. The kids have been busy with school work and various other activities and I'm still getting over a cold.

But we have been living vicariously through our geocaching Travel Bugs (TB) in New Zealand, both of which have been quite active since being released last month.

Hiking Doggie looks like he's had the most fun, having gone to a wedding at Tongariro National Park on the northern island in New Zealand.

There are a couple of photos of the wedding at Tongariro and my daughters - being the quintessential girls that they are - were ecstatic with the photos of our TB with the flower girl and wedding cake.

What's really great is that both our New Zealand bugs, Annika and Hiking Doggie have been logged and photographed by geocachers there. The kids like getting the email notifications when one of our TBs has been picked up (or dropped off) to see if there's a new photo or story about their adventures.

My 7-year-old has been a little disappointed with her U.S.-released TB, Lilo The Swimmer. She was released in southern Maine in June and has only changed hands 4 times. Lilo was placed in a remote cache in Northern Maine (in July) and has yet to be picked up again.

Ronny has seen a little more action with stops in New York and Vermont and has changed hands a number of times during his 5 months on the road.

I love the TBs because even when we can't get outdoors, we can still enjoy mapping our travel bugs' adventures around the globe.