Five Weeks Off: Day 1-2

I got 45 minutes of sleep on Thursday, basically writing a book of instructions to make sure Kevin doesn't burn our house to the ground. Then our parents saw us off at the airport like a bunch of kindergarten kids going off to their first day of school. It was heartwarming. I was so proud of Heather for not shedding tears.

Pre-flight morning

We arrived to LA and promptly had to deal with a minor medical issue which required a prescription. So we wandered around the environs of LAX and happily found a medical clinic and pharmacy nearby. The bonus was that our detour took us past an In and Out Burger. “Do you see what happens Larry?...” Heather even had a burger at this fast food establishment. Crazy. Must have been some halucinigenic prescriptions.

In and Out burger

My additional 3 hours of sleep over the two flights so far was leaving me pretty drowsy and we both slept for most of the NZ flight (Heather sleeps permanently, even while awake). I was able to catch The Dark Knight on in flight TV, great movie. Heather watched Mama Mia, and unsurprisingly said it was NO GOOD, while waving her arms back and forth across her body, like the big football fan she is. Ok, that's not true, but I'm convinced it was bad enough to warrant that. I didn't get a chance to see Tropic Thunder, so that was disappointing, but I was able to catch a bunch of Stepbrothers. “It's the Catalina %&^$# wine mixer.”

There was a guy nice enough beside us to take the window seat and offer his aisle seat to perma-pee-er Heather. Her medicine had this side effect and we didn't want to have to bother this gent every hour. I think Heather went 7 times over the 11 hour flight. Good job Heath. However, he didn't use the toilet once the whole flight. Someone give that man a medal.

Upon getting into cold, windy Auckland, we retrieved our rental car and made our way to go shopping for necessities, like bread and PB and chicken flavoured potato chips. Then it was off to Paihia in the North. I didn't realize the stunning beauty of the countryside while on the way up, but with the sun out on our way back on Monday, it was pretty spectacular.

The driving was the most amazing I've ever done, similar to Hawaii. Not even in video games have I done anything that fun. The roads are very narrow and the speed limit is often 100 kmph around bends where it should really not be. I don't think we had a straight road for more than half a kilometer, so there was plenty of passing lanes. Needless to say Heather was often clutching for something to hold onto. On the way back, her strategy turned to just saying “No” when she thought she would travel through time, followed by napping which made everything less tense.

The winding highways

The biggest challenge of course was remembering what side of the road to stay on. Heather needed to remind me several times that we were collision bound. Even walking down sidewalks properly has been a difficult adjustment.

While in Paihia, we did a 12 km walk to some waterfalls, failing to acknowledge how far 12 km is. We made our own spaghetti in the handy campsite kitchen and promptly went to bed. Naturally, Heather's 11 hour sleep didn't satisfy her and she was dozing off the next day while on our nautical adventure (She was dreaming about Costco). We spent the day in the Bay of Islands, touring the sights and swimming with dolphins in arctic type weather. The highlight was gazing down below the water, hyperventilating due to hypothermia setting in, and seeing four dolphins cruise about 10 feet below us. Other than that, they kept their distance. The guides made us aware the dolphins may have been sleeping where they shut half their brain down at a time and just glide around (this may explain Heather's state most of the time). So unfortunately, they did not frolic with us. 60 NZ$ and no frolicking, so disappointing. At least we got some free hot chocolate.

The real highlight of the trip was the roller coaster of a ride taking our tour boat out into open Pacific Ocean waters. The inclement weather made for a nice roller coaster type action. I rather enjoyed it, but I'm sure by the number of people requiring barf bags, I was one of the few.