around the world in 180 days

            Travel days are always exhausting. You get to the airport hours before your flight leaves and the airport people ask you all sorts of semi-accusatory questions like “do you have any flammable materials in your luggage?” Me, being the trouble averse sort of person that I am, had of course stowed my matches and a lighter in my checked luggage, knowing that in the US, these items can’t be carried on the plane. Not so in NZ. In NZ, they can’t be checked and you have to keep them in your carry-on. Weird. It was fun digging through my pack at the check-in counter—I’m glad I knew were they both were, or we could’ve been there for a while.

            You get a little break while you’re in the air, but when you land (at least for int’l flights) the semi-accusatory questions begin again. What kind of food are you carrying? Do you have any used camping gear? What were you doing near farm animals? How long are you staying? Where are you staying? It’s never fun, but customs in Australia wasn’t bad at all, especially compared to NZ. We were off the plane and through in 45 mins. It probably took twice that long in Auckland.

            Once you’re done with all that, you’re still in the airport, and you’ve got to figure out how the hell to get where you’re going. There’s plenty of people to ask, of course, because everyone there is in the same boat, but the trick is finding the proper person, the one who knows the answer to your particular question. Every info booth seems to have answers to one question only. We did quite well with this as well, managing to secure our transport (via public train, bus and ferry) for the whole week, along with a ride back to the airport. It only ran about $50 each, which doesn’t seem too bad at all.

            But we made it. We had a little trouble finding our bus once we got into central Sydney, and once we did find it, we were on it for almost an hour, but we made it and we’re in our room right now, with NZ nothing more than a memory and a vague plan.

            What a memory it is, though. We were really treated to the best the country has to offer in our last couple of days. The Avalanche Peak hike was awesome. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky all day, the temp was in the mid 70’s (or low 20’s, depending on your scale) and there was just a light breeze. The views from the top of the mountain were spectacular, 360 degree mountain scenery, with glaciers and snow-capped peaks and everything one wants in alpine beauty. It was well worth the incredibly steep climb up and down and I’m especially glad the weather was so pleasant.

            The rest of our time there was no less wonderful. NZ is a beautiful country—it’s a small wonder so many movies are made there (when we were leaving the Rees/Dart hike, we drove through the set for the next Narnia movie; we had to wait while they finished up a shot before we could pass through). My only regret is that we didn’t plan more time there; I would have liked to have been able to do some more long hikes. The country is so full of them that it seemed a shame to only do one, although the one we did was about the best we could have found. We’ve already talked about going back someday, but it’ll be a long time, I think. We’ve got other things planned for a while. I can wait, though. NZ is worth it.

            The other bit of good news today is that we returned our rental car and do not have any additional charges. The whole deal was a headache and I still wish it had never happened, but at least it didn’t cost us anything. (yet?)

            Anyway, enough is enough. Time for bed. Goodnight!