HAPPY MONDAY
The time has finally come. We are leaving for New Zealand in a matter of hours. Goodbye to this side of the world and hello to "down under". And hello to the FUTURE! It's already Tuesday there! That makes us time travelers, which is even more exciting than just being "normal" tourists.

Not that we're tourists. I mean, sure I will have my hat, my wild print shirt, and my camera around my neck but I always look like that. No no my friends, we have shiny blue "permanent resident" visas in our passports. Nevertheless, the first place we will be arriving is Auckland. We'll be touring around the biggest city for a day or two before high-tailing down to Wellington, where we plan to live. We scrounged up enough money to forgo camping at the end of winter, so we'll be seeking a warm, inexpensive rental apartment.

The past few days have been busy with packing, boxing, sorting, and not much sleeping. We won't deny that we are last-minute people, doing last-minute things at the last minute. But we did all of that on time and right on schedule.

I really didn't think we'd be able to get everything done in time, and not be a frazzled wreck. But it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. By the time our things were mostly rounded up and we were ready to take a break last night, we found that two large buds on our huge cactus had just flowered. A good omen!


Our adventure is flowering, and butterflies fill my stomach. Oh wait, that's my stomach filled with... no food. I must have missed lunch, how can it already be 2pm?!

See you in Auckland!