a journey of a thousand miles: May 1, 2011

As the journey back to the States begins I cannot help but to feel a little bit of sorrow. Traveling has been my life for the past three months and that is all about to change. Reentry back into my old life is going to be very challenging. We started our trip home when we left Queenstown on Saturday morning. We all couldn’t get on the same flight so we were split up and would later reconnect back in Auckland. Our first flight was to Christchurch and then from there to Auckland. The flights were pretty smooth and quite short. Every flight has an instructional safety video but the best part of these flights was that they featured Richard Simmons! Everyone was dressed in 70s workout clothes and turned the safely features into a workout. . .it was pretty entertaining! The first was about 30-45 min and the second a little over an hour. I think we spend more time in the airports than on a plane! To pass the time we played Gin 13 and took a lot of pictures. After we arrived in Auckland we waited for the rest of the group to get back and then we headed into town for our last night in New Zealand and our first night in Auckland. We booked a hostel and our bus (to and from the airport) at the airport so we wouldn’t have to wonder around the city at night. The Base was our hostel of choice this time (since we had just stayed in one the night before) we were comfortable with their accommodations.

Queenstown Airport group!

Leaving the airport

Waiting for take off

View from the plane

Christchurch Airport group!

Once we were all settled into our hostel and had some dinner we decided to head out and enjoy our last night on this amazing adventure. Our bar of choice was the Ice House! It is an ice bar in Auckland where everything is made of ice and inside is -5 degrees…you literally walk into a freezer! They provide jackets and gloves for you and are limited to 30 minutes in the bar at a time due to the temperature. The cost was steep but it included a free drink, jacket, gloves, and of course the experience. The $25 was worth it for me.

Our room :)

The group before we headed out to the bars

Ice Bar

Free drink with entry!

Even the cups were made of ice!

The group at the bar

Brrrrrr

ICE HOCKEY!!!!!!!!!!

I was the undefeated champ!

The group for the night...after the ice bar

After the ice bar we went on a tour of the city trying to find the apartment that the rest of our group (from back in Australia) had been staying for the week. When we found it we hung out with them for a bit until it was time to head back to the hostel and get some much needed sleep.

On Sunday morning we woke up around 8:45am to shower, pack, and catch a bus back to the airport. Our flight out of Auckland wasn’t until 7:15pm but we didn’t have anywhere to store our luggage for the day so the airport was our hang out until it was time to fly back to LA! It took me awhile to get my suit cases all organized and underweight but with the help and extra room from a friend I made it work. The only problems we had were the changed rules that the airline had saying we were only allowed 1 checked bag instead of the 2 we were allowed to have on the way here (this rule I did not know at the time). But no worries it was soon all sorted out and everyone got both pieces of luggage checked and we all made it through security and to the terminal smoothly. Now it was the big Hurry up and Wait theory of traveling that we all love so much!

Heading to the Auckland Airport

Auckland Airport

The flight to LA was about 12 hours long. It was a smooth trip despite a few patches of turbulence. At first my seat was pretty far from the rest of the group but thankfully one of my friends asked the front desk if we could change seats and they were more than accommodating. I got moved to a window seat and my friend got to sit with me as well with no problems.

I didn’t sleep very well on the plane due to a cranky man sitting behind me and complaining about leaning my seat back but the food was pretty good and the movies were entertaining. For dinner I had lamb and for breakfast I had hotcakes. Watched a few comedies’s and took a few short naps. By the time we landed in LA I was exhausted but excited to get back to my phone. I made my first calls from the plane and soon realized that I didn’t miss my phone as much as I thought I did. We have a 10 hour layover in LA. So far we got our first sweet teas from McDonald's and a few free drinks at the bar to pass the time. While at the bar we met a really nice lawyer and his son (who is also a lawyer) and they offered to take all three of us out to dinner. They were from Denver Colorado and were here visiting family. It was very sweet and we got a free dinner and bottle of wine out of it!