November 13th

Saturday Nov. 13:  This is the day that has always loomed in my future.  November 13th.  The day I leave New Zealand.  The day I return to the states.  The day everyone here has dreaded but everyone back home has waited eagerly for.  And what do I think of this day?  I have had mixed feelings all along.  Sometimes when I missed people from home I wished it would arrive sooner, but when I was having the time of my life, I would want to push it as far away as possible.  Now that it is actually here I am having these same emotions but more intense.  I am ecstatic to see my family, boyfriend, and friends.  But I am heartbroken from being ripped away from this place and my friends here.

This morning Courtney's parents took us four girls out to a nice breakfast.  Then while walking around the mall area looking for tacky NZ tanks, Courtney happened upon the last "I <3 NZ Bro" tank top in the store we were looking in.  We decided it would be an awesome idea to buy it and send it back in forth like the sisterhood of the traveling pants!  We then bought a notebook to send with it.  We are now known as the "Bro-hood of the Traveling Tacky Tank Top."  This way we can keep in touch and talk about New Zealand while we are back in the states.  This will definitely help us all overcome our reverse culture shock.

While we drove Cathy back to our house, I felt the tears welling into my eyes, ready to spill over any second.  I took one look at Steph, saw her eyes were just as glossy and then at the same time, the tears just poured out of our eyes.  It was the strangest crying ever because we were laughing but our eyes were like buckets that kept refilling and spilling over.  It was so sad leaving Cathy and driving away down the driveway.  We composed ourselves by the time we got to the apartments and then packed up and laid out it the sun on the Ilam quad. 

So the time came for our taxi to take us to the airport.  I was in such a weird state of mind... just reluctantly going through the motions and not accepting that everything I left behind today, I was leaving for a very long time.  At the airport, Steph and I's luggage was overweight so we spent a while ripping through our luggage,  transferring or getting rid of stuff.  We were happy when we finally made it to the gate and saw Ryan sitting there!  I had my first 2 hour flight from Christchurch to Auckland with Stephanie and Ryan and my 13 hour second flight to San Fransisco with Ryan.  My third flight was 6 hours to New York.

Saying goodbye to Stephanie and New Zealand was very rushed and very very sad.  I did not know how to handle it.  It did not feel real so I wasn't emotional about it yet.  As I flew over New Zealand, the sun was setting and the mountains looked so beautiful.  I shed a few tears as I stared out the window until I could no longer see the land I loved deeply, explored every corner of, changed my life, and called my home for the past five months.

Goodnight New Zealand

Traveling

Air New Zealand

View of Grand Canyon from Plane

At 12:30 pm on Monday (June 21), Mum, Dad, Lindsey, and I left our house to begin our journey. We flew five hours to LAX (we saw the Grand Canyon from the plane!!! And we flew over the International Date Line where time jumped forward 24 hours!) and got a connection on a huge double decker air New Zealand plane to Auckland where we arrived at 6 am on Wednesday.  Unfortunately one of my bags was left at LAX so we had to return to the airport the next morning. The first thing Lindsey and I got excited about as we stepped into New Zealand for the first time were the super big Toblerone bars! Yum!! The Kea camper van company came to pick us up at the airport at 7:30 am after we drank some free tea. We were the first ever customers at their new facilities. After an hour of signing paperwork and learning how to work the van we headed off on our epic journey through the country. The first thing we did, of course, was stock up on food and then we visited Gillian and her baby Erin. Gillian is mum’s cousin’s daughter and this was the first time meeting her! We then met up with dad’s work colleague, Caroline Gray, and she brought us to One Tree Hill. At the top we could see all of Auckland! After, we went out to dinner with her and her husband at Fox’s Ale House. It is true that the best wine comes from New Zealand! It was a great atmosphere to watch the All-Blacks play Wales. The Haka is so intense! Exhaustion set in as we returned to the camper van and conked out at 10:30 pm.

View of Aukland from One Tree Hill