Monday March 1 - Time to go home...

With Mount Maunganui in our rear view mirror, thoughts turned to packing and wondering if we were going to be able to get everything in our suitcases! It's amazing how much you can acquire in two months!

We ended up leaving some things at Peter and Bryan's for next year, and we did get everything into our luggage, although we came home with more than we left with! How does that happen? Oh, that's right - I buy stuff!

But worse than packing was wondering if we were going to get on the flight, and having to put on long pants and the clothes that we were going to need to be wearing when we got to San Francisco. It was much too hot for long sleeves!

Richard had graciously offered to take us to Auckland to the airport, and John rode along, so we all headed off, with all of our bags. On our way to Richards, we stopped in briefly to say good-bye to Zoe, who is all settled in her new little retirement unit, which is literally around the corner from Peter and Bryan. We are looking forward to seeing lots more of her next year.

Fingers crossed, we got in line at Air New Zealand. It was miraculous, but they took our luggage and gave us seat assignments!! Not together, mind you, so we were going to have to sleep with strangers, but we were ON!!

We were checked in early enough to go upstairs with John and Richard for a farewell beer. Craig and Stephen came out to see us off, and Deane did as well, so we had quite a send off as we went through security. That was really a nice feeling, and so nice of everyone to do that!

Oh, yes - security! Ok, so we did the normal security thing - liquids, computers out, but shoes weren't required to come off. Then through the x-ray machine, where I got wanded. But, as we headed to the gate, we encountered a second security check point - and this one was much more thorough! Everyone got patted down, shoes came off and were examined, all carry-on was opened and examined thoroughly! Apparently no one on our flight was hiding anything in their underwear!

Due to the extra thorough security, required by the US, we didn't have much time at the gate to wait to board the flight. We had just gotten there when we were being paged - uh oh! When you are traveling stand-by, that's usually not a good thing. But, they had changed our seat assignments and put us together! That was a wonderful surprise, and we enjoyed flying back together.

It was an uneventful flight, just the way we like them. It was also a long flight, and neither of us slept well. Penny, bless her heart, picked us up at the airport with our car. We went back to her house for a much needed cup of coffee before heading off to Costco, as our cupboards were bare!

Our wonderful time in New Zealand came to an end for this year. But we are looking forward to visits from Bryan and Peter and perhaps John, later this year. And, we had a visit from two of our grandchildren, Nathan and Hailey, to look forward to.

We have about a million pictures and incredibly wonderful memories that we will cherish always. Thanks to all of our amazing friends in New Zealand for making that possible!


Zoe, in her new, happy home.