Traveling across the Pacific Ocean and International Date Line to a new adventure
Suddenly, after what felt like ages of planning and anticipation, the big day has arrived. The six weeks since giving notice has flown by in an instant and it’s time to start our next chapter in New Zealand. But first, we have to get there…
We spent the prior weekend packing our bags and taking them to the airport for a test drive on the scales. That led to endless jettisoning of not needed items and rearranging to get every bag to its exact weight limit, but we were successful.
We both worked Thursday as our last days and despite enormous amounts of advance planning, mine was still hectic trying to wrap everything up, complete hand offs and say goodbyes. I didn’t do so well with the goodbyes because I ran out of time, but also because I hate them and am really going to miss my colleagues. I was still at it when Hale got home and we had to rush to ship my laptop back before the UPS store closed. Then it was final packing, cleaning and we were ready to go!
Friday morning was a final goodbye to Portland airport with an at gate send off from both a good friend and the fun beer sculpture, before our flights took us through SFO to Honolulu, arriving just in time for sunset on the shuttle ride to the hotel.
We have loved Kauai, Maui and the Big Island on our vacations there, and can now definitively say that we do not love Honolulu! Strip malls, fancy malls and traffic was our (admittedly limited) experience, but we did enjoy fish tacos from Paia Fish Market, fireworks on the beach and a good night’s sleep (which was the whole point of breaking the journey this way.)
An early morning shuttle took us to the airport and we had a good laugh with the driver who said “Susan, I have to say that’s a lot of luggage for one night in Hawaii.” And he would have been right since we had massive amounts (4 checked bags = 1 each for clothes, 1 for “stuff” (binoculars, hiking poles, etc); and 1 “golf” bag full of kite gear; plus a carry on.) When we told him that those bags hold everything we own in the world, he decided he was impressed instead.
That’s when we almost didn’t make it out of Hawaii! We were worried about luggage limits on the next flight because the carrier had changed from United to Air New Zealand and every agent we had called had given us a different answer, but in the end they didn’t even blink at our bags. It was us they were ready to deny.
When I applied for the long term visas, it clearly stated that you could either prove onward travel or sufficient funds, and since we have no idea where we are going from here, we sent copies of our bank statements and received the visas. But the gate agent wouldn’t give us a boarding pass without a ticket out of New Zealand. She explained that since the US has started being such jerks to other countries around immigration, NZ has started enforcing the outbound ticket for US Passport holders. We quickly purchased outbound flights on my phone and with the magic confirmation number, were handed our boarding passes.
Another easy flight, despite being split up and Hale sitting with a two-year old whose dad consumed a twelve-pack on the flight, and soon we were absolutely thrilled to be landing in our new home!
And although we didn’t get a pick up at the airport from Jacinda like Stephen Colbert did, we did receive this rousing and singing welcome as we stepped into the arrivals lounge. (Or maybe that was for the Tongan Rugby team arriving behind us?)
Hale did a great job adjusting to driving on the left as we made our way to our apartment for the week, only continuing to turn on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal (yes, everything is opposite here.) We arrived giddy with excitement and with never ending grins on our faces.
We love the care Kiwis have for their country and their polite way of requesting tourists treat it well
Our first written introduction to Kiwi speak – note the “Scrummy” on the food label