Road trips and celebrations

On the 28th of October I officially became a Master of Diplomacy and Trade. I was/am quietly (and not so quietly) chuffed. One of my goals in moving back to Wellington was to complete my Masters - I really enjoyed everything about this course (which took me three years part time). For those that don't know I set up my consulting company to fund my Masters and was (in theory) supposed to work part time and study the rest of the time. Of course not all of my "clients" saw it that way and, as a consequence, mostly I worked full time and studied in the weekends and at night. It is a good feeling to have completed the course and..........well I just can't help myself...........I would like to be able to, eventually, complete a PHD (we shall see we shall see - perhaps I will grow out of the idea).
Anyway in the interests of celebrating K&B took me on a three day road trip to Colorado. Wow this was just fantastic and saw us winding through some of the most spectacular mountain country and inspired in me a secret ambition to learn to cross country ski, snow shoe and get myself a little cabin in bear country (we shall see we shall see). On our way to Telluride we stopped off at the most amazing historical site - Mesa Verde. The park was established in 1906 to preserve sites built by "Pre-Columbian Indians" on mesa tops and in canyon alcoves. Apparently there are over 4,000 known archeological sites in Mesa Verde National Park, 600 of which are cliff dwellings. It is really spectacular and, at times seems sureal.

Travelling on to Telluride we went over some truely spectacular mountain passes. Colorado isn't really like NZ (although the pictures might not have you think that!). At one of the highest points we crossed we were higher than Mount Cook. Alot of the rock/soil is also quite red, much like Aussie. Telluride itself is this very beautiful ski village that has some truely amazing homes. They have kept true to form (Queenstown are you listening) and have strict building requirements. All the homes in the main town are made of wood and look very "english". K&B bought me my fav bubbles and we had started the evening with bubbles and nibbles in my room (see the view!) then headed out for a very nice meal and a wander around the town.
Next day we headed up to the mountain village - very quiet but able to accommodate thousands of people when the snow is right. We then headed off to Durango . But not before we had a very memorable moment in a little bar in a little town where we walked in and everyone at the bar turned to "look at the strangers in town". I really knew it was time to go when two women at the bar ordered a half yard of beer and looked like this was just the beginning.............
Durango Is another “pretty town” – although very different from Telluride. We started out in the local “saloon” where the waitresses dress accordingly. Then we headed out for another very lovely meal. Ended up having after dinner drinks in a stylie little bar, and given it was the night before Halloween, we were much entertained that by the costumes that came in.
Following day we headed back to New Mexico but not before we had (according to our resident tour guide) driven through the largest alpine valley in the world and passed through Montrose, which is where the high altitude marathon runners come to train………..it didn’t look much like a training ground for anything I have to say!