So, Cate and I are in the Seoul airport having completed the first of our 12+ hours flights to get home. It's a bizarre mix of emotions, which we have decided when combined with very little sleep last night mostly just leaves us feeling numb! Ha. But lots of sadness, gratefulness, reflection, excitement, awareness, and surrealness also.
We had a good trip up the rest of NZ...the glacier hike was beautiful and we had a hunky Maori guide who looked like a Disney hero.
We then drove up the stunning west coast to Punakaiki where there is a Pancake Rock formation and stayed there for a night. We walked on the beach looking for greenstone, or jade, and out to the rocks, which are layered stacks of limestone, in the morning. Then we made it through Marlborough. the wine country, stopped for one wine tasting and stayed the next night in Picton because we'd missed the last ferry to the North Island. It'd just like to state here for the record that NZ has the most pimped out hostels in the world (we can make statements like that now being world travelers and all)...there was a hot tub in Picton and we got free chocolate pudding and ice cream!
We got the ferry in the morning and started a mission of a drive up to Whitianga where our friends Sarah and Juddy were at Juddy's family's beach house! Totally sweet. On the way we lunched in the hip area of Wellington (like the village in NYC), stayed a night in Taupo (which is surrounded by steaming hot springs that smell like sulfur), and stopped for the world's biggest hot chocolates in Rotarua (seriously, it was served in a soup bowl). It was pretty exciting to see Sarah and Juddy after 3 years! They had a couple of other friends staying so we had dinner and drank lots of wine and played a card game called 45's (For the Buckley family, it's like Euchre on crazy pills!). The next day we ((very)briefly) ran into the freezing ocean then checked out the much photographed Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach, where geothermal hot water comes up through the sand! Today we got up at 3:45(!) to drive to Auckland to catch our flight here and we after a 14 hour flight tomorrow we will be back on American soil for the first time in 5 months.
Just wanted to send one more post from the road. I'm sure we'll post a few more times now that we'll have regular internet access(!) and will post some links to photos etc., so keep checking but just wanted to say thanks for following along throughout this trip. It truly has been incredible, and we'll try our best to accurately convey it to you when we see you. :)
Love and adventures,
Krista + Cate
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2 comments:
I can't believe it's gone by so fast! Seriously. In a few short days I'll get to give you a huge hug! I'll try my best to make your brief time in Atlanta measure up in some way, though I cannot promise free chocolate pudding. :)
Welcome Home, can't wait to hear all the details not included in your posts, and see some pics.
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