One for the Road

My final set of pictures have been posted. Sorry for the delay. Also, Picasa is again experiencing difficulties so writing captions for this set was impossible and after 6 days I give up. Oh well. Enjoy the scenery anyway!

The Finish . . .

I am recuperating right now to the PST time zone, date, and short winter days. Let me first say I was not surprised to step off the plane and be greeted by semi-frigid weather. In fact, I scoff in it's arctic face!

Seriously, I am ecstatic to be home. I could have stayed longer in the South Island for sure, but I know I'll be back with more of a clue as to where to stay longer and what to skip.

The final days of my trip were a blur. After leaving Franz Josef I continued North to Greymouth via coach and the countryside did not disappoint. At Greymouth I caught a train in to Christchurch where I booked my final night at the first Hostel I started in (Chester Street backpackers) and the German caretaker recognized me and complimented my boots so I felt right at home. I made a quick run into town to explore the city a bit and then turned in for the night to catch an early flight the next morning.

The shuttle driver who picked me up was around 65 and never stopped talking the entire ride. If he wasn't complaining about other drivers, he was talking about how lazy others are, making racist remarks, making derogatory remarks about women, and then hitting on the other women shuttle drivers via his CV radio. By the time he dropped me off I nearly bolted for the door.

My flight was canceled for SEA FOG but I managed to book onto one a bit later right away so none of my plans were interrupted the way they could have been. The Vedders picked me up and the rain poured down again!

That night they took me out for a "Birthday/going away" dinner and David (Bruce's son) came with his girlfriend Susan, and they arrived late so they walked in terrified that Bruce was going to give them crap- but he controlled himself and we had a nice dinner (aside from the wait staff being incredibly slow and a fire in the kitchen delaying our meals even more . . . )

The next day the sun broke through and it was actually 28degrees Celsius! HOT & muggy. So we went to the Museum and had a beach-side brunch (where I spotted Keisha Castle-Hughes!) The one celebrity in all of NZ and I happened to spot her on my last day. Hilarious.

The flight back was easy- I didn't sleep much but I watched movies galore, and the two sitting next to me were total talkers so I had plenty of company to pass the time with. When I got through customs and started hearing American accents again I got choked up. (Really) I am ecstatic to be back.

All of my laundry is done, and I still need to go re-stock my fridge and do normal chores but driving myself around (on the CORRECT side of the road, and knowing where everything is was totally dreamy).

Being Kiwi was an amazing experience- full of life lessons, new friends, and different perspectives . . . but as always, traveling makes be happy to be HOME, hugging my parents, laughing and eating Mexican food with my sibings, and catching up on news from Los Angeles.

Mom sent me off this morning with "looking forward to seeing your other family?" (meaning friends).

Yeah. SO much.