The generosity of some people is amazing!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Would you believe, a package showed up today airmail from Auckland with 2 pens in it.

If we ever end up in Auckland, NZ again, we will stay at the City Life Auckland. It's a great hotel in a great location and they even have great customer service 1 year later. How cool is that?

BTW..if you go out the side door to the hotel on to the little side street, take a right and cross the street. The Irish Pub at the nearby corner has great pub food and a nice selection of draft beers. It is also located in a 200+ year old stone building. One thing that amazed me about Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland and even some of the Australian cities is how new buildings seem to wrap right around and include these older buildings too! It's cool.....seems well thought out.

[Kent A Bathurst]

When we took our 2+ week long trip there, the citizens were unsurpassed in their friendliness and kindness...and we have travelled to many countries and nearly all the States. None better.

Great customer service - they have a customer for life, trumpeting their business, at the cost of what? Thoughtfulness and a couple lousy hotel pens.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

When we took our 2+ week long trip there, the citizens were unsurpassed in their friendliness and kindness...and we have travelled to many countries and nearly all the States. None better.

Great customer service - they have a customer for life, trumpeting their business, at the cost of what? Thoughtfulness and a couple lousy hotel pens.

Kent....this was our 2nd trip to New Zealand....you are absolutely right.....no friendlier people on this earth......

My wife is in Port Orchard, WA getting acquainted with the newest member of our family....little Madeline Elizabeth Knopes was born last September. She's our 7th great-grandchild. My wife will be tickled to see those pens! Little things....thoughtfulness.........it impressed me!

[Gordon Eyre]

Nice stories Ken. There are many kind people wherever you go.

[Larry Edgerton]

Never been to NZ, but on this continent I have to give the nod to the fine people of Nova Scotia. Halifax was awesome and I hate cities.

Quebec, not so much.....

[Jim Rimmer]

And then there is the story of two friends who share a love of music. One friend checks her mailbox one day to find that the other friend has sent her a CD he thought she might enjoy. Such a simple thing, but so meaningful to me and much needed at the time . . . Mr. Ken Fitzgerald. You receive because you give.

Until they both died, my Mom and her sister would from time to time send each other "just 'cause" gifts - small things of little cost. I can still remember my mother's face lighting up when she opened these packages.

Several years ago I started doing that for my wife. Not big gifts but every month something - a CD, small flower arrangement, a book. Some reason I stopped. I need to get going again. It made her so happy. Not the gift but the being remembered.