homeward bound

Flight #1:  Wellington, NZ to Auckland, NZ

• Quick, 1 hour flight.  We were served cottage pies and wine on board.  Gazed out the window at all the roads we traveled the past two weeks to drive from Auckland to Wellington.  Completely relieved to have handed over the luggage until Los Angeles.  Sad to be leaving, but it hasn't quite hit us.

Flight #2:  Auckland, NZ to Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.

• Flight was delayed leaving so was able to watch Home and Away one last time in airport.  Longest jaunt of the trip, 10 hour flight, crossing international date line.  Were served yummy dinner of ginger sesame chicken, with wine, followed by ice cream, snacks, and Cadbury hot chocolate.  On demand movies, I watched Marley and Me.  Tearjerker.  Lots of turbulence, slightly scary to experience in the middle of the night.  Barely any sleep...5 hours while fighting a headache.  Woke up, had ham and cheese frittata and tea for breakfast.  Opened shades on plane to experience sunlight.
• Departed NZ at 7 pm MONDAY evening.  Arrived LA at 11 am MONDAY morning.  Freaky time travel!

14 hour layover in Los Angeles

• We made it through customs, with little trouble due to swine flu, and were thankfully able to recheck our baggage 14 hours in advance! 
• Bret's friends still live in LA and his best pal Matt was flying in at the same time as us, so we met him, and had our first taste of America, Rubio's fish tacos (my favorite!) and a fountain Dr. Pepper...it's good to be home!

• Showered and cleaned up at Matt's place...the tiredness is starting to kick in!
• Visited USC's campus
• Happy hour with Matt...first American beer (Blue Moon draft)!
• Dinner in Santa Monica at Barney's Beanery outside on the patio.  

•  Back to the airport, greeted by dozens of local and national news vans, covering the swine flu.

Flight #3:  Los Angeles, CA to Dallas, TX

• Red-eye flight overnight, Bret slept the entire time, I listened to music and got a taste of my first American television from NBC, The Office
• Arrived in Dallas for a 3 hour layover at 5 in the morning.  So tired...can't sleep!

Flight #4:  Dallas, TX to Omaha, NE

• Quick flight, 1 hour.  Right before boarding, Bret realizes in his utter exhaustion, he has left his book and beloved iPod on previous flight.  Racing towards the other gate, only the book is waiting for him.  Frustrated, we fly into Omaha.
• As approaching Omaha skyline, I am feeling butterflies in my stomach as tears well up in my eyes.  I cannot even begin to process that we are actually home.
• Back on Omaha soil.  We made it.

• Last people off the plane, we freshen up, call American Airlines about the iPod, and walk up the ramp, back to our families.  Security guard welcomes us back to Omaha, and notifies us of movie filming at top of ramp, completely confusing us, turns out it was just my mom with her camera (so I thought).

• Homecoming to Bret's parents and my mom.  Greeted with a festive kiwi-green welcome home New Zealand sign, flowers, and GEORGE CLOONEY!
• Sure enough, GC is filming a movie...in the Omaha airport.  He sure is handsome in person, but as you can imagine, after 48 hours of travel, it is all a bit overwhelming.

 Not the best pic through the glass...but that's him!!!

• Lunch at New York Burrito (how I've missed thee) with our families!

•  Must. get. sleep. now.
  

Bye bye New Zealand...

 

You never really leave a place you love.

Part of it you take with you leaving a part of you behind.

Our last full day in NZ...

We're staying in the same exact room of the same exact hostel we stayed in on our first day in Wellington, NZ for our last day in Wellington, NZ.  We've been gone long enough to notice changes in Wellington, and it's refreshing to look at this part of the country through different, more experienced eyes.  When we first arrived in NZ, coming out of winter, the weather was cold and rainy.  Now back here again, with winter approaching, it's cold and rainy again.  We started the day the best way I know how, watching my soap opera's Home and Away omnibus (all the week's episodes on Sunday morning with no commercials) for the final time.  

  

After getting ready, doing last minute laundry, and packing, packing, packing in an attempt to finally contain everything we came with and have since bought, we timidly ventured out into the blustery rain.  We walked in search of souvenir shops, for last minute purchases.  We soon discovered that Wellington has few of these stores compared to Christchurch and Auckland and the other touristy towns, and after walking in the rain for 15 minutes, the only one we found was closed!  We decided instead to visit NZ's most famous museum (also on our Monopoly board) Te Papa, to see if we found it any different than we had when we visited it on our first day in New Zealand.

 

Excuse the messy hair...we've been in the rain all day!

 

   

Afterwards, we headed to Mac's Brewery for our last meal in New Zealand.  Keeping with tradition, this was the first place in New Zealand that we ate at and sampled the local beer and fish and chips.  We cozied into a booth in the bar, reminisced about our trip while enjoying our last kiwi food, as night fell on our last day.

One more day

Today is our last day of the road trip before our final stop in Wellington.  We drove for four hours, through our last NZ scenery to return the rental car, settle in Wellington, and prepare for the long journey home...I can't believe we're leaving on Monday.  I am mixed with emotions of sadness, joy, and fear, all overwhelming me at various times.  Our journey is ending, our crazy inspiring adventures coming to a close.  I am amazed at the growth our relationship has endured, being isolated from comforts for the past seven months.  I am strengthened by my increased sense of determination and independence; I have far exceeded my own personal growth expectations.
  
I hope to take the relaxed and laidback kiwi lifestyle back to my hectic American life, working to find balance in all of my activities.  The kiwis have a strong sense of can-do spirit about them, and hopefully I have inherited that somewhat from all of my adventures and interactions with kiwis and fellow travellers.  I am sad to end this life-changing experience; I will forever miss it!

Napier

Napier is known as an internationally recognized art deco town.  In the 1930s, the town was devastatingly destroyed by an earthquake, and when it came time to rebuild, they designed the town completely art deco style.  The town is still maintained as such, and reminded me of walking on the movie-set-inspired streets at MGM Studios in Florida.  The architechture was scenic, and the town was beachfront property to Hawke’s Bay.  The Hawke’s Bay region is home to the north island’s finest wineries, and the largest producing region of NZ’s red wines (my fave).  So we couldn't resist taking a short drive to Taradale for some cellar door wine tasting.  The vineyards are changing color as autumn approaches, and it was spectacular.

Mission Estate Winery, New Zealand's oldest!

 

Awesome autumn

The drive into Napier

The art deco hotel where we stayed  

  

To celebrate the nearing end of our trip, we shared red wine and a rack of lamb before moving on!

Long drive

Most of today was spent driving...from the national park to Napier.  Before we left, we said goodbye to the resident farm animals that had free range of the hostel property, the goat, sheep, and Daisy the pig (who terrified me).

Looking at the map (as official navigator), there were two ways to get to Napier.  One way had us taking major roads north for a while then cutting east towards the coast.  The other way had us taking a direct road east, that was marked on the map as 'difficult'.  Seeing as the other way looked shorter, I opted for the difficult road.

   

Before getting to the difficult part, the first portion of the drive drove us out of the national park, with the volcanic range alongside us, for a stop in Ohakune.  I thought I had recognized this town as the first space on our NZ Monopoly board, known for it's giant carrot statue (another great road trip stop).  Bret couldn't remember the name of the town either, so we searched for the carrot with no luck.  After driving out of the town and back on the road, we spotted it!  We jumped out of the car for a few pictures and journeyed on.

The difficult road turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  The road was one of the most picturesque roads we've been on in New Zealand, like driving through a postcard.  The roads wound through the beautiful autumn leaf-changing tiny towns, up into the sloping green sheep-dotted hills, and through native NZ bush.  Because of the winding road conditions, yet again, it made for a rather slow journey.  Halfway through, the road turns to just gravel, one lane, cut into the dense bush on the mountainside.  Our pace was slowed even more significantly as our tiny car slowly climbed and descended the hills.  Fortunately, the roadtrip mix-cd we made, that skipped violently in the old cd player, suddenly worked perfectly on the bumpy roads (go figure), so we were able to enjoy the scenery with a NZ soundtrack.

 

funny sign!

   

The shorter distance, we figured, actually took longer than the longer distance on major roads would have taken.  But we arrived in Napier safe and sound, minds full of beautiful New Zealand landscape. 

Tongariro National Park

Sleeping in and enjoying a hearty breakfast, we hopped back in the car to explore the national park the easy way.  There is nearly no civilization within the park, just many walks and hikes, and a tiny ski town at the top of Mount Ruapehu, our first stop.  This volcano is snow-covered year round, and is one of NZ’s top skiing destinations, with its most recent eruption in 1995.  We drove to the car park at the base, and took in the expansive views.  Just a chill-out day spent at the lodge in front of the fire!

 

Kiwi bird crossing! (We didn't see any)
 

Don't fall!

  

Mount Doom

Mount Ruapehu

 

Road trippin' and eatin' GingerNuts!