January - February 3 - Kathy! Finally, after planning since August '22, Kathy arrived! She overlapped with Kelsey & Grammy in The Queen Charlotte Sound, then we went on our adventures, some with Mark and some just the two of us. First, Maruia Hot Springs for hot pools, yoga, and long walks in the forests, including The St. James Walkway. Returning to Nelson, we did the Thursday Sea Swim. However it was a bit rough that night, so Kathy delayed her Sea Swim debut until the next week. Off to Nelson Lakes National Park for the weekend. Mark led the tramps, up Mt. Robert, through the Matiri Valley, staying at The Alpine Lodge, and returning via Murchison (Rivers Cafe!) The next week, Kathy and I traveled up the Abel Tasman National Park coast on the Aqua Taxi. We stayed at the Awaroa Lodge and walked over to Onetahuiti Beach. The water taxi back to Marahau carefully detoured into Shag Harbour, the skipper's favorite place in the Abel Tasman NP. It was high tide and we squeezed through interesting Maori carved rocks in shallow water and observed a very shy, big black sting ray. Back to Nelson for the Thursday night Sea Swim. We all three did the swim and Kathy rocked it! It is always about 1500 meters and she had fun navigating around "the dolphin" and "the rusty boat" and back to the Nelson Yacht Club where the swim race always begins and ends. We three travelled over to Wellington for the Banana Boat "Swim the Lighthouse" 3.3 km swim race. First stop was the Te Papa museum. After a stormy Saturday, Sunday rolled around with calm seas and sky. The water was cooler than expected (17 c), so Kathy bowed out and Mark and I joined three hundred plus swimmers to circle out and around the lighthouse in Oriental Bay. We also had an unexpected fellow swimmer friend from Salt Lake City join us for the swim! After the swim Seth joined us as we explored Zealandia, a bird sanctuary. We said goodbye and flew 25 minutes back to Nelson. Kathy left Thursday, 2 February. All of a sudden we were the two of us again.... but not for long!