coming home

Well, it's official.  We are leaving New Zealand.  It's been an emotional battle with myself to even write this blog entry, because writing about leaving means that it's really happening.  With our long-term stay in Christchurch over, we are spending a short amount of time on the north island, traveling until we leave.  I am overwhelmed with emotion:  excitement about coming home, sadness to leave NZ, worry about a loss of my kiwi self, stress about what to do next.  This travel experience has enriched my life in so many ways, most of which I didn't anticipate or even think to expect.  It's widened my world view, challenged my comfort zone, taught me about relaxation and patience, and strengthened my life's relationships.  I've learned to let go and give in to a plan not known, to trust that things will work out, and to resist the urge to control everything.
  
Bret and I left Omaha with nothing more than a plane ticket and a work visa.  We didn't even have a plan.  Nowhere to work, nowhere to live, just a whole lot of luggage and a dream.  We arrived in Christchurch, and within a week had several job interviews, landed a place to live, and were slowly settling.  Giving way to faith and adventure, and learning how to live simply, without all of our possessions, our family and friends 8500 miles away, and a whole new culture to deal with.  No longer tied to the cell phone, or able to rely on our trusty individual vehicles, we found ourselves using unpredictable public transportation, watching one of four television channels, and housed in someone else's fully furnished flat.  Each day presented a new challenge or adventure, whether it be the daunting planning of a week's worth of traveling in this foreign country, coordinating telephone or computer chats with an 18 hour day ahead time difference with people back home, or attempting to hang laundry loads on a tall clothesline in the wind, praying it doesn't rain. 
  
All of it has been an experience, and we are slowly winding down, reflecting on our time already spent, and gearing up for a last couple of weeks of action-packed down-down under travel.  We have a couple more things that have been on our 'must-do' NZ list still awaiting us, as we mosey down south, from Auckland to Wellington, with several stops in between, then finally homeward bound.