Auckland Airport makes St. Louis Airport look like LAX. It is awesome. Big, shiny, full of friendly and helpful people, and... smoothies!
Here is just one example of how awesome the airport is, and the first clue that we really are in New Zealand:

Maori carving in Auckland International Airport.

So now that we are exhausted from 14 hours of flight, we push around our baggage (which luckily, we had no problems with getting) trying to figure out what to do next. We had planned to take the Overlander train down to Wellington but they only run on weekends during the 'off season.' So we set towards the car rental kiosks, but on our way there we ran into a friendly Security guy who asked where we were going. He insisted on calling his friends over at Rent-a-Dent when he heard we were looking to rent a car. That was the first taste of kiwi kindness and certainly not the last we would encounter. Unfortunately all the car rental places, including Rent-a-Dent, were all booked thanks to the Rally going on.

So we got desperate. We went to the Freephone in the International Terminal, where tons of pamphlets for rentals, accommodation, and sundry other services lie in wait for the desperate traveler. Long story short, we got a car, and cheap too.

So now that we had wheels, our next task was to find a place to sleep for the night. We went to a Backpackers but the prices were higher than we had anticipated. We spent 1/4 tank of gas just trying to find our way around Auckland to find somewhere to rest our weary heads, to no avail.

Auckland. Nice place to visit, horrible to drive around in!

We stopped at a gas station, got a liter of cola, and drove south to Hamilton, where my Backpackers guide promised a variety of cheap accommodation.

We found J's Backpackers 10 minutes before closing, and finally, finally, went to sleep.

J's Backpackers in Hamilton

In front of the Backpacker's. I love New Zealand.

J's Backpackers was quite nice and the owner was friendly and helpful. But I think we left our towel there.

In any case, at sunrise we set out once again on the road. They drive on the left side, you know.

Hill with sheep.

I must mention here that when everyone says New Zealand is synonymous with sheep, I've always rolled my eyes, because I thought it was a South Island thing. But no, it's a New Zealand thing. We saw this beautiful scenery for hours.

Hill without sheep (I think they're on the other side).

Hill with sheep.

We pass rural areas and more sheep, and gorgeous green countryside. A large building with a metal sign and a creative shed read "Corrugated Creations." Little did we know they must have supplied all of central New Zealand with signs, because nearly every business had a corrugated metal sign (and they were creative).
We get hungry so we stop at a cute little town called Tirau.
These corrugated creations caught our eye and we ate at a delicious and cheap cafe right across the street from our new, giant metal companions.

Mom, I know you're gonna love this one!!

Wouldn't you know it, more sheep?

Sitting at the table next to us is this little feathered friend.

Ronnie's Cafe, I want to go back there! My sandwich was yummy, had beets, tomato, pineapple, and avacado, and was only $2.50 (that's less than $2 USD).
Back to the streets.

We see a sign that says "Huka Falls, 200m"... we figure that's close by so we stop. I'll be uploading the video on the next blog post. It was incredible.

It's winter here, can you tell?


Okay enough sightseeing. Next stop is Lake Taupo, the biggest lake in the area. Here we are approaching the town of Taupo.

The weather was perfect, the sky was bright and the air was crisp. The birds love the lake, and so do the trees.
Off in the distance is a mountain!


A budding tree, is it spring? I am so confused.

You knew that was going to happen.

I would be too.

Back on the road again...

Slow down around this turn...
Or we'll run into a snow-covered mountain.
IT'S AN ACTIVE VOLCANO!

Where are we, the alps?
Or the desert?
We are in the desert. This is where the NZ Army trains.
We start seeing green again. It is getting cloudy!
The sun is starting to set as we meander along the bay... into...
Upper Hutt, WELLINGTON!
And into the Lower Hutt, Wellington!

And we are there. Wellington, our new home.
Now we just need to find a home.
And jobs.
And food.
What will fate have in store for us?

Flying into the future>>>


Bags. Check.

Passports. Check.

Camera. Check.

Goodbye to family. Check.

St. Louis Airport

Off and up into the clouds. And over the clouds! And above the clouds for hours...

This is my first flight and it was amazing. Four hours passed by and the lights of the big sprawling city of LA lay below us. From one side of the horizon to the other, we could see nothing but city lights - like a Lite Brite the size of... well... Los Angeles.

Since St. Louis was a really nice airport I was expecting even more from LA. I'm thinking restaurants galore, grab a bite to eat and wait for the plane. Flying west into the pacific time zone should be flying into the future so maybe it will even be like the Jetsons or something with smoothies and meal pills. But to our dismay, trudging down the carpeted halls of LAX we realized we must have gone into the past, because the 80's called and they want their airport back. It was dingy, covered with old carpet, and we couldn't even find any place to eat, with the exception of one tiny cafe, the line stretching down the hall, and the prices reaching Californian proportions. This IS California, so I guess it was to be expected.

Eventually we loaded onto a HUGE plane, the kind with an upper deck and wings the size of a small whale. We whiled the 10 pitch-black nighttime hours away attempting to sleep. As dawn was about to arrive we saw islands dotting the ocean, and the plane swooped below the clouds. We had landed in Fiji. The sun rose over mountains as we awaited our next flight.

We sat next to an Indian-Fijian woman on her way to visit her sister in Auckland. She had never flown before and was terrified. We chatted for 3 hours (we have things in common - we both love trees and this was our first adventure on airplanes) and I showed her pictures of the clouds we were flying over, because she was afraid to look out the window.

Before we knew it, we saw them. Islands.

We were finally about to land in New Zealand.

Auckland aerial view.

I held her hand as the plane floated down, and finally stopped. Parting with my new friend, we stepped out of the plane and into our new lives in our new country that we will call home.

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!

Pak-n-sav

[just some of my thread]

Pak-n-Sav is a grocery store in New Zealand. Incidentally that is what we are doing at the moment.
That's right, it's that time of the year... or the month... when... we pack. Our stuff into boxes. Our very many stuffs that we have way too much of still but we can't seem to shake from the bowels of our storage containers. There are only 20 days left before takeoff, and I have loads of fabric to categorize, prioritize, and box up.

[just some of the scrap pile]

And I don't know when I will see it again.

Also a fair warning: Thimblescratch shop will be closing up soon for a couple months, so shop while you can (and help a starving artist in the process)!

[ For sale at Thimblescratch Shop!]

Last but not least, here's a kitty for your thoughts.

[Moby]