Five Thousand Word Essay

Some More Numbers

61 - total days traveling

36 - individual flight segments

31 - different airports

14 - different airlines

12 - different types of aircraft

140 - (equivalent number of) pieces of checked baggage

0 - pieces of lost/misdirected/delayed luggage

1 - complete lap around the planet

A Conclusion... and Another Beginning

The Conclusion

Well... it's over. It's hard to believe it in a way and in another way, it's a welcome relief. Don't get me wrong... as I have mentioned before, and as many before me have said... it's always good to be home.

It was a wonderful trip in so many ways. It was an adventure and an education. It had its ups and its downs, but it was very, very well worth all that was invested in it. It was sooooo worth it. One of the first questions asked of me after our return was, "Would you do it again?" My answer was a definite, "Yes...

but not right away."

It IS good to be home.

This post pretty much brings the essence of this blog to a conclusion. I have enjoyed writing it and I have particularly enjoyed sharing it. Thank you again to the many, many folks who have read it and have shared their thoughts about it with me.

I have no timetable in mind for ending this blog and will probably leave it up at least until I can figure out the best way to make a permanent copy of it. That could take a while. I will very likely keep adding to it as some post-trip thoughts come to mind or as the conversations we will inevitably have with those we know spur me to make another addition. I will, however, discontinue the email updates I have been sending out. If you are so inclined, please feel free to check back now and then for a look...

The Beginning

Now that the trip has come to an end, it's time for the memories to begin.

And they will last a lifetime.


Maybe longer...

Fair Warning

Eight Thousand Three Hundred Fifty-Five

This number is derived as follows, based upon the results of our camera usage:

6,931 digital images

+1,424 video clips
____

8,355


Use extreme caution when accepting any invitations to our place for the next long while.

Hawaii... then Home

The flight from Auckland went well and we arrived in Honolulu as scheduled. It took almost no time to clear immigration and customs and we were at the hotel long before the room was available.


The hotel was very accommodating about everything and we spent the morning lounging by the beach and the pool and strolling around for a few blocks. We stopped back by the desk around 11 a.m. to see if one of the "loaner" rooms was available for us to change into swim gear and found that our regular room was all set. So, we changed and headed downstairs for some lunch and a dip or two.

Our friends, Maria and Barry, had gotten in the previous evening and would join us in the afternoon. By the time we were through with lunch, they had arrived, gotten checked in and were on the beach with us.

We spent the afternoon doing nothing, as we would also do all of the next day.

On the second day, we rented a car and took a little tour of the island. We started out at the U.S.S. Arizona memorial.

We then headed up the middle of the island for a stop at the Dole pineapple plantation, a walk through the maze and a sample, of course.


Afterward we drove along the North Shore and came back toward Waikiki via the Windward Side. We crossed over the mountain range and drove through Honolulu for a stretch before crossing back via the Pali overlook and around by the eastern tip of the island. The weather was typical for Hawaii with occasional showers. Along with the showers, come these:


Before coming back to the hotel, we stopped at the location where I used to live. It is no longer an army post, but is now a community college. I think I found the location of the house based on the view. It looked mighty familiar.



The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, had lunch then went to the airport for the overnighter to Chicago and on to Atlanta. Here's the last look we had on the climb out:


The flight was pleasant enough and we arrived on time and easily made the connection home. Our neighbor, Tom, the United pilot, had once again made some contacts with the flight crew and we were presented with a nice bottle of wine from the captain. We arrived in Atlanta on schedule and ran into Tom at the gate, where he was waiting to take the return trip to Chicago and get started on a six day trip.

Mark and Braeden met us at baggage claim and got us to the house at about 10:30, dropping us off where we started from 61 days ago. It was a lovely trip and, as always, it is good to be home.

Bula! from Fiji

So, with the flight cancellation in Queenstown, what was supposed to be our first night in Fiji was actually spent... getting to Fiji. It wasn't too bad after all, though. Had everything worked as initially planned, we would have arrived at the hotel in Fiji at 7pm-ish, had a bite to eat and gone to sleep until it was time to hit the sun and sand. As it turned out, we arrived at 5 am the next morning, had a bite to eat (since breakfast began at 6) grabbed a few winks, then hit the sun and the sand.

Here are a few shots I took shortly after breakfast:

As mentioned, the relaxing began in earnest after a short nap and the rest of the entire stay was spent doing pretty much nothing but having a few sunbakes, watching the ocean, eating and repeating the cycle... no tours...no obligations... just doing nothing in particular. It was great!

Not to take anything away from Mallory Square, but the sunsets in Fiji were pretty good, too...
Here's one as viewed from inside the hotel room:
Susan has made a practice of photographing the boys every year at the beach as a variant sort of means of tracking their growth. In every year's picture, the boys are side by side (acting as though they like each other) facing the ocean. Here is this year's edition:


The stop in Fiji was a good way for us to take a little vacation away from the vacation. The weather couldn't have been better if we had ordered it. However, the rain gods weren't ever too far away. Here is a shot from the morning we left Fiji:
It did let up enough that we didn't get too wet on the way to the airport. We caught our flight to Auckland as scheduled and were on our way back to the USA.

South Island

The weather for the flight out of Rotorua was marginal and, although we were mildly concerned about it, all went well. We found out later that it was the last flight to get out that day.

As we crossed the Cook Strait and flew along the coast of South Island, the clouds broke and we had some nice views of the Southern Alps. By the time we got to Christchurch, the ceiling had gone from overcast to broken and there were some patches of sunlight around. It didn’t last, though.

The next day was overcast and drizzly again as we headed north to Kaikoura. The trip was a couple of hours each way and the guide was very personable and gave us a good commentary along the way. The primary purpose of the expedition was to take a whale watching tour, which we did. This time, we were looking for Sperm whales and the outing was successful. We also saw several New Zealand fur seals , but no dolphins this trip.



The following day we left Christchirch via bus and headed for Queenstown via Mt. Cook. The weather was much better for this trip and the scenery was spectacular, although Mt. Cook itself was never fully visible.







We arrived in Queenstown that evening and stayed in a very nice place on the shore of the lake.



From there, we took full day tour to Milford Sound. this is the part of NZ that looks like Norway and, as with everywhere else we have seen, it is spectacularly beautiful. The road to Milford Sound is long, winding and (pardon the pun) gorgeous as it goes over a couple of passes and through one mountain. Each way took about four hours.




The second day's tour was a half day trip up to the village of Glenorchy at the mouth of the Dart River for a jetboat ride. It was an exhilarating ride, for certain, and was made even more so by the rain. This is definitely on our "places to come back to" list... next time, we will do it in the summertime, though. It was interesting to note that at this location, we were about 25 km from Milford Sound, as the crow flies.




Leaving Queenstown proved to be very trying and was the second big snag we hit on the trip. The airport is in an area of quirky weather and our flight out got cancelled because of it. Nevermind that the ceiling was actually pretty high and the visibility was good. Apparently, owing also to the mountainous conditions, the aircrew certifications vary from company to company, which resulted in all the airplanes operated by the carrier we were NOT booked on to continue to come and go.

Fortunately the folks who held our ticket were able to rebook us on a flight on the competition to Christchurch and to connect to a different Air Pacific flight on to Fiji. However it involved a 7 hour layover in CHC.

A note to myself and for anyone else interested: When scheduling flights into or out of Queenstown, New Zealand... do NOT book on QANTAS.