Mom's got some new hardware

Mom update: she's okay, awake and reading, and off the morphine. She had a succesful surgery yesterday where the doctors put in some plates and a bunch of screws, so she's all decked out with more robotic materials to add to the ones she already had, which will further enhance her ability to trip metal-detectors at airports. Ding! Ding! Ding! Brian and I are very happy to hear she's doing well. And I'm super happy to have sent her a mother's day card that arrived two weeks early. Score! As for the cycling, it's going well. We're in the deserted Catlins area right now. Our goal for today was to suck wind. We succeded. These hills are ..... a workout. The wind is still at our backs, which makes the hills a bit easier to handle; however, the temperature has caused me to continue to wear my scarf while cycling. Brr... When we stop, we've got approximately 3.2 minutes before the shivering becomes borderline detectable on the ricter scale. Our plan is to finish eating this fantabulous peice of carrot cake, sleep well in our fancy hostel room (it has snot-green shag carpet and more spider webs than even Charlotte herself could muster), then head out tomorrow with hopes of arriving in Dunedin by the 15th. Let's keep our fingers crossed that either the wind continues to boost our backsides, or that it dies out completely. Just don't change direction, and we'll be okay.