30 degrees difference

The weather is fantastic today, clear blue skies and light streaming towards us from all surfaces. in the pictures I can however see how little light there actually is. The sun is not yet up at 10 am, although the sky is a clear blue and snow reflects what little light there is. The vistas around Volda are breathtakingly beautiful, and little Volda College Campus shows off it's advantage over most other campuses in the world - the impressive, dangerous, but always breathtaking nature we live right in the middle of.

However...

If you peek at the thermometer, you understand why all students walk around huddled with their hands in their pockets. It's - 11 degrees Celcius. That's cold.

So rather than forcing myself to be outdoors when we finally have a clear day, I plan my trip to Blog Hui. I am leaving for New Zealand Sunday 5th. The 6th will disappear, and the 7th I am there, ready to explore. The 10 days before Blog Hui will be spent in a campervan with a friend. I am exited and happy, carry a digital camera and hope for internet connections on the way. Prepare for travel-blogging of the "what can possibly go wrong with two middle aged women driving a camper van for the first time on the other side of the road in a foreign country?"-kind.

(Although hopefully the blogging will be more of the "this is how far I have come on the introduction to my book on this smooth, easy journey through lovely vistas" kind. The journeying should be light and include lots of comfortable camping places, the laptop always with me and the deadlines within a foreseeable future.)

The main sights we want to see are volcanos. New Zealand has fjords, glaciers, mountaineering, rafting and splendid hiking paths in the mountains, and we both decided that we can do that any time (and do it - ok, perhaps not the rafting, Norwegian glacier-born rivers are cold!) we want, now we want different. Volcanoes are different. Warm beaches are different. Sunshine is different. Wine needs to be tested. Food needs to be tasted. And I really want to see a glow-worm cave. I promise I won't use a flash.

And it seems like I am not the only one interested in volcanoes, New Zealand Herald has conveniently volcanic "news" on the online front page today - although these are rather old news, and from Indonesia.

So I am going towards the southern skies, over the mountains and from freezing spring at - 11 to summery autumn at + 20.