On American soil...

I made it back to America without to many problems. I had spent the day in Auckland with my Aunt and Uncle doing some last minute shopping and packing. I filled one whole suitcase with food and goodies to bring home to my family. I got to the airport around 6pm for my flight that was to leave at 9:45pm. When I checked my bags in, I was well over the weight limit. The limit is 23 pounds and they wont allow your bags on the plane if they are over 32 pounds. Well, at least one of my bags was over 32 pounds and the other one was really close. My Uncle told me that knowing my bags were going to be really heavy, I should pick a young guy at the counter and flirt with him and hope he is lenient. It was a young guy at the counter who checked me in, but I didn't have to flirt with him. He just put them through and told me that he hoped his supervisor didn't catch him. I was very grateful, thanked him, and prayed he didn't get in trouble for helping me out.

Our flight was delayed for over an hour while they tried to fix a door that wouldn't shut properly. While it was a nuisance to be delayed, I was very thankful that they fixed the door. We seemed to make up the lost time as we landed about 20 minutes late. As we landed the flight crew told us that if we hurried, we could get to Customs before another plane load of people that had arrived late. I am glad they told us, because as I got to the customs line, there were about 15 people in front of me. Only a minute later, I looked behind me and the line behind me had about 50 or more people. Those poor people would have waited for an hour or so.

Half an hour later, I had breezed through customs and was very relieved to make it out of the airport. Sam came and picked me up. We took the scenic route home and I loved seeing the beach and familiar places again. More than that, I loved having the time to catch up with Sam. After I got home and dropped of my bags, I went to a Bridal shower for Julia Van Dyke. Julia is Sam's sister and is getting married next weekend. I arrived pretty late, and made a grand entrance. But the best part was getting to see many of my friends and celebrating with Julia her upcoming marriage.

Today, I took things really quiet. I slept late, and then had a nap in the afternoon. I was trying to set my internal clock back to American time and get some much needed rest.

The airplane I flew back on

My Suitcase full of Food

More People...

Below are some pictures of some of the people I have caught up with over the last couple days.

On Monday night, the Bisleys, Bensons, Leysers, Campbells, Andrea and Kirsty popped over to say goodbye. On Tuesday night I caught up with a number of Aunts, Uncles and Cousins from Mum's side of the family. On Wednesday I caught up with Nana, and Dad's side of the family.

Andrea and I

Rowan and Wendy
Aunty Ali
Emily, Anna, and I (cousins)

Matt (cousin)
Anna and Matt
Nana and Peter
Nana's New House
The Leysers and I
Kirsty Morton and I
Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins
The Bisleys and I
The Bensons and I
Me and Amos

Coming Home...

The last two days I have been in Christchurch. I have spent most of that time visiting with extended family. Tomorrow I leave Christchurch at 5:40am and fly to Auckland. I will spend the day in Auckland before flying out to LA at 9:40pm.

I will post again once I get to Auckland, as I am using someone elses computer. I cant wait to get home and look forward to seeing everyone again.

Packing Pallets...

Today, I packed the pallets. Myra and Annah Bisley helped me and we got the last of the boxes taped. The Lord was gracious to keep the rain at bay for a few hours while we packed. There was quite a bit of shuffling the boxes to fit them all on three pallets. But in the end we did it! When we got them packed, I ran around them with the shrink wrap. The moving truck showed up around 1:30pm and we loaded all our belongings on the truck. It was kinda sad to see it all go, but now I can relax. It is all finished.

5 days and counting...

Only 5 days to go! You know its bad when you start counting.

This past weekend has been all about finishing things. I had boxes to finish filling and sealing. I had people to finish catching up with. I had items to finish collecting from people. I had shipping details to finalize. It has been busy. I even squeezed in a doctors appointment to get a TB test done. I still have to go back on Monday for them to read the test, and make the prognosis that I have never had it or been exposed to it. This was part of my requirements for coming to school in America.

Which reminds me that I got my Visa! It was delivered with my passport on Friday morning. I will be allowed back into America...Hallelujah! This has been a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

Tomorrow will be a big day. I have to have my shipping package ready for pick up by lunch time. So it will be all hands on deck at the Bisleys. Then I have to have all my belongings packed and ready to go as I am going to be flying down to Christchurch on Tuesday morning for the duration of my stay in NZ.

On the road... again...

On Thursday morning, around 11am, my package from America arrived. It had themissing paperwork that I needed and I was elated. I quickly packed up my things, said goodbye to my Uncle and headed down to the American Embassy. When I found a parking spot, I feed the parking meter so I could be there for an hour, just incase I had to wait to get to the front of the line. However, when I got up to the Embassy, I was the only person there. I handed my paperwork over, and asked when I could expect to get my passport back. They told me that I should have it by Monday at the lastest, but possibly even the next day. I was feeling a little lighthearted, so walked around Auckland city for the hour. It was nice to be out and about, visiting some shops and tourist spots.

After that, I headed out of Auckland. I decided to take a different route home from my drive up, so headed in the direction of Tauranga. When I realised how close I would be to Paeroa, I just had to stop and see if the huge L&P bottle was there. L&P is a soda that is world famous in New Zealand. It all started in Paeroa which is what the "P" stands for. The "L" just stands for lemon.

I came across the Victoria Battery Mine ruins in the Karangahake gorge. I had fun playing in the arches of the battery taking self portraits with my camera, but I wished I had Beckie there to take the pictures. No doubt hers would have turned out much better than the ones I got.

I made it through to Tauranga and Mt Maunganui just as the sun was starting to set. I wished I had stayed to see it set all the way, because the clouds turned a brilliant gold colour then a vivid pink and purple. But I wanted to push through and get to Te Puke before I lost all the light of day. In the last picture of the giant kiwifruit, you can see the last remnants of the colourful sunset.

For most of the day, I had glorious weather for sightseeing and driving. By the time I got to the last set of mountains between Taupo and Hastings, I had started to drizzle, but by then it was dark and I couldn't see anything anyway.

I have to say that I have been surprised with just how small New Zealand is. But there is so much to see. I have only shown snippets of the things that I could get to by car. There are so many other places that you can explore if you get out and walk. But I didnt have the time. However, I thoroughly enjoyed just driving through the countryside and seeing my beloved country where I have so many memories.

My Trip South

Tip Top Corner

Huntly Power Plant

My mode of Transport - A Mazda MPV

L&P Bottle in Paeroa

The river that ran through the Karangahake Gorge

Victoria Battery Mine ruins

A portrait in the ruins

The road to the ruins

Mount Maunganui

Sunset at Mount Maunganui

The giant Kiwifruit near Te Puke

Waiting...

Today has been a really laid back day. I haven't done anything productive and have just sat around the house all day. That sounds terrible, but I loved every minute of it. It has been nice to just take one day and not have to think about doing anything.

In the last couple days, New Zealand has had some pretty bad weather. There were numerous tornadoes in Taranaki that have left hundreds homeless. The South Island has had a cold snap that has caused black ice so bad that even the police are doing things on foot. And last night we had gale force winds that knocked out power to thousands of homes in and around Auckland and Northland. Thankfully we were not affected by the power outage, but the Prime Minister has issued a state of emergency for Northland which also sustained some severe flooding. All that to say that the weather has been miserable in Auckland today. There have been unending grey clouds and it has been cold.

At lunch time, Uncle John and I went and picked up Aunty Lyn from work and the three of us went and got some lunch at the Hollywood Bakery in Albany. I had to laugh when Uncle John mentioned in passing that for once he finished his food before Aunty Lyn. In Aunty Lyn's words "the Greenings learned to eat fast, or they missed out!" Mum, it is kinda scary how much you and Aunty Lyn are alike at times. Did you know that almost all of your siblings love and are addicted to Sudoku? Scary! As a side note, I think you get to steal another one of Aunty Lyns family boasts. Reuben is now the tallest cousin, taking the title from Aidan who is 6"5.

In the afternoon, I decided to get out of the house for a while, so I went for a drive. Below are just a couple pictures I took along the way. I only have a couple as I couldn't be bothered getting out of my nice warm car or openning the window to take more.

Throughout the day, I have been tracking my package of paperwork from the States. It is quite incredible how many places a package goes before it gets to your house. My package has been to Sylmar, CA, Louisville, KY, Honolulu, HI, and Sydney, Australia. At the moment it is on its way to NZ.

Tomorrow I hope to get the paperwork to the Embassy early so that I can be on my way back to Hastings.

Looking across the harbour at the Auckland City Skyline

Looking out the other side of the harbour at the Harbour Bridge