day four!

• ok, i just wrote a longish, funny post and then lost the whole thing . . . this next won't quite measure up to the first, but it will have to do.
• this morning i actually woke up after sunrise - new and exciting! perhaps i'm returning to my pre-jet lag sleeping habits at last. i spent the morning getting to and looking around at kelly tarlton's, this aquarium in auckland. it's a bit small for the price, but what they have is pretty cool. i arrived as the penguins were being fed - fat little black and white water birds are so cute! one of the more unique features of the place is its "antarctic experience" section, which has a model of the huts used by the earliest explorers in antarctica and brief descriptions of their travels (and for some of them, their untimely deaths). fortunately for me, the experience did not involve antarctic temperatures.
• this afternoon, i took a four-hour trip to paihia with a company called 'naked bus.' (in spite of the name, it's not a clothing-optional ride.) it was a pretty drive through green and hilly country with flocks of sheep, herds of cows, and - what do you call a bunch of deer? it seems that deer are farmed here much like sheep and cattle; they graze in the same sort of pastures all over the place. oh, and at one point, i'm pretty sure i saw a bunch of llamas, too, or maybe they were alpacas? i can't tell them apart.
• anyway, i'm here in paihia now, and it's time for me to book some fun for tomorrow . . . i'll let you know what happens. thanks for reading!

days two & three!

• yesterday was sunday. i visited kitty & tim's church, which they described as "charismatic lite" with a decidedly international twist. most of the people are not native new zealanders - i met people from maylasia and the philippines, among other places. then, after a stop at a sort of lunch counter (curry steak pie - buttery, flaky goodness) kitty and i drove to matamata where their son seth and his wife lydia live. for you spanish speakers out there, matamata is maori and the first and third syllables are pronounced like the last syllable of doormat - has nothing to do with death and destruction.

• here i am in a hobbit-hole! lydia and seth live just down the road from where hobbiton was filmed for lord of the rings - they took me on the tour. it's not well kept up - new line cinema owns the rights to the place and had it pretty well torn up by the time the family who owned the farm was able to salvage a bit for tourists, and by agreement with new line, the tour operators aren't allowed to make any improvements to what's left. they do their best to put on a good show - starts off with sheep shearing and lamb feeding (it's a working farm with thousands of sheep - smells like it, too) and then the guide takes the bus over the hills to the sites where she points out where the set was. and that's mostly it - the party tree is easy to pick out, and a handful of hobbit holes are still there (without their brick facade) - the rest of the tour went something like this: see that blue peg across the gully? that's where the bridge started. see those yellow pegs below? that was the village centre with the pub and market. i rather enjoyed it anyway, though i wouldn't recommend it to someone who wasn't crazy about lotr.
• last night i got some good tips on travel around new zealand from lydia & seth and josiah (tim & kitty's youngest son). they recommended a cheap way to get around and pointed out some good stuff to see throughout the country. i booked bus tickets - i'll be back in their area friday night to go caving! i don't know that i've ever been in a cave before! should be fun. also i got to hear seth and josiah sing music they'd written themselves, good stuff, too bad it's not out on cd.
• today i visited lydia's class of nine-year-olds: thirty kids who had made group projects about tourism in new zealand to show me. they were adorable. they told me what they liked about new zealand and asked me what i thought of the place (terrific) and if i'd seen an assortment of kiwi television shows (never heard of them). they were also quite impressed that the entire population of new zealand could fit in chicago - twice over!
• i'm not really over the jet lag yet, as i've been droopy by mid afternoon but wide awake well before dawn. (rebeccas 1 and 2, perhaps this trip will make a morning person out of me! don't hold your breath, though - i'm awake but not exactly chipper, so i doubt it will last.)

nz day one!

• i'm off seeing the world now . . . first time ever in the southern hemisphere. the flights weren't bad - i slept through the majority of the long one - and my lovely hosts kitty & tim were waiting for me when i exited customs. none of the customs people seemed in the least bit surprised that i was accompanied by a harp - they didn't even want to open the box! i guess that's what x-ray machines are for.
• so far as i can tell, my new camera is vastly superior to the old one. i can't seem to get my sd-hc card in the card reader on this pc, but i'll give you a little summary of my day and hopefully upload some photos later.

• this morning, after my 6.00 am arrival, we went to downtown auckland and mt eden to look around - beautiful views of the harbor and city. it was hot and humid but felt terrific after a long chilly chicago winter. after lunch (which included a delicious tomato-feta salad - yes, alyson, my first meal in nz was cheese-based) i took a nap and then kitty dropped me off in devonport for the afternoon. i walked by the harbor, watched the sailboats, visited the naval museum (dad, you'd love this town) and got takeaway fish & chips for dinner, which i ate on top of mt victoria while enjoying spectacular views. all of auckland is built on a bunch of volcanoes - makes for interesting and varied terrain. this photo is of auckland from the harbor in devonport.
• now all i have to do is stay awake until a decent hour . . . and try to sleep through the night. day one of my adventures has been lovely.

travel plans

• so here's my plan so far: three and a half weeks in new zealand, followed by five weeks in laos. in new zealand, i'll visit auckland, the bay of islands, matamata, wellington, and . . . some places on the south island, as yet to be determined. i have plane tickets for the major moves: chicago to auckland, auckland to bangkok, bangkok to vientiane, bangkok to chicago. as of right now, i'm planning on trains and buses for most of the rest of the trip, except that i'll probably want to fly between (somewhere on the south island) and auckland so as not to burn up too much time in nz with back tracking on the way to laos.
• also, i got a new camera - the battery is charging now. once it's ready, i'll post some photos of . . . my luggage? there's not much in my apartment that i'd care to photograph and then plaster all over the internet. let's just say i didn't do all the pre-trip cleaning that i would have liked.

last day at work

tomorrow! i'm almost there . . . i hope the day doesn't drag too slowly.