We had a 6 a.m. wakeup call and headed on the road in darkness. As we drove along, we waited in vain for the sunrise. For what seemed like hours, we drove with headlights on. It turns out that the entire coast had experienced major fog – lasting most of the day causing cancellations of flights and people trying every way to get out of the city. 
We finally arrived into Auckland and returned the wonder car and got a lift to our apartment/hotel. It was wonderful to find an efficiency apartment complete with kitchenette, laundry and cable TV. With only 2 days left, it still was nice to be able to do laundry and arrive home with clean clothes.
Mike and Kate had hooked us up with an old business associate of Mike’s who lives in Auckland. We were able to connect via email and phone and arranged to meet for dinner. We met at a waterside restaurant and had a wonderful evening talking to the locals and getting a chance to see how our perceptions and reality of life in NZ compared.
We finally arrived into Auckland and returned the wonder car and got a lift to our apartment/hotel. It was wonderful to find an efficiency apartment complete with kitchenette, laundry and cable TV. With only 2 days left, it still was nice to be able to do laundry and arrive home with clean clothes.
Mike and Kate had hooked us up with an old business associate of Mike’s who lives in Auckland. We were able to connect via email and phone and arranged to meet for dinner. We met at a waterside restaurant and had a wonderful evening talking to the locals and getting a chance to see how our perceptions and reality of life in NZ compared.Our last day in NZ, we arranged to store our luggage and walked downtown. We stopped to check on email – and found an entire room filled with Asians on PC’s playing video games. Downtown, we watched an anti-war demonstration and saw the police arrive to break it up.
It was finally time to head to the airport for our long flight home. The flight, as most flights these days, was completely full. In fact, our seat mate was a 19 year old Irish lad who had a broken leg. He was heading home- amazingly going through LAX to the UK (not the most direct routing for someone with a broken leg). They weren’t able to get him into first class – or into a seat where he could elevate his leg (as recommended by his doctor), so he had to straddle the aisle and move every time anyone needed to pass. The story he told to the insurance company and the flight attendants was that he fell down the stairs at the youth hostel. To us, he told the true story. He was drunk as a skunk and playing chicken with his buddies. They were picking each other up and he was dropped on the ground breaking several bones in his leg.
We arrived in LAX, picked up our luggage, and walked to United’s domestic terminal to see if we could get a flight out that day. No such luck….all of the flights were booked and there were no flights available for the entire week – spring break travel. At that point, we were grateful for our horrible connections the next day. At least we’d be home. So, it was on to the hotel. We had a few drinks in the lobby bar and got caught up on the news from the States. We came home to 24 hour coverage of Terri Schiavo – a comatose woman who doctors said was brain dead with no hope of recovery- and the battle between her parents and her husband over pulling her feeding tube. We watched in absolute astonishment at the political drama unfolding….Republicans eager to cater to their base, the Religious Right, were trying to get Congress to stop the removal of the tube and GW flying back from Crawford, Texas to sign the bill into law. We were dumbfounded and feeling very estranged from this place we call our home.
The next day, we started our long journey home- traveling from LAX to Washington Dulles then on to Orlando for a midnight arrival. True to his word, Kenny Presley was waiting for us and we made the trip back to TGO. The next day we were ready to start preparing the house for our move.
It was finally time to head to the airport for our long flight home. The flight, as most flights these days, was completely full. In fact, our seat mate was a 19 year old Irish lad who had a broken leg. He was heading home- amazingly going through LAX to the UK (not the most direct routing for someone with a broken leg). They weren’t able to get him into first class – or into a seat where he could elevate his leg (as recommended by his doctor), so he had to straddle the aisle and move every time anyone needed to pass. The story he told to the insurance company and the flight attendants was that he fell down the stairs at the youth hostel. To us, he told the true story. He was drunk as a skunk and playing chicken with his buddies. They were picking each other up and he was dropped on the ground breaking several bones in his leg.
We arrived in LAX, picked up our luggage, and walked to United’s domestic terminal to see if we could get a flight out that day. No such luck….all of the flights were booked and there were no flights available for the entire week – spring break travel. At that point, we were grateful for our horrible connections the next day. At least we’d be home. So, it was on to the hotel. We had a few drinks in the lobby bar and got caught up on the news from the States. We came home to 24 hour coverage of Terri Schiavo – a comatose woman who doctors said was brain dead with no hope of recovery- and the battle between her parents and her husband over pulling her feeding tube. We watched in absolute astonishment at the political drama unfolding….Republicans eager to cater to their base, the Religious Right, were trying to get Congress to stop the removal of the tube and GW flying back from Crawford, Texas to sign the bill into law. We were dumbfounded and feeling very estranged from this place we call our home.
The next day, we started our long journey home- traveling from LAX to Washington Dulles then on to Orlando for a midnight arrival. True to his word, Kenny Presley was waiting for us and we made the trip back to TGO. The next day we were ready to start preparing the house for our move.
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