There and Back Again: a Canadian's tale

(Tuesday, May 23) On our drive up to Auckland, the weather echoed our sadness at our trip coming to an end, and we caught only the briefest glimpse of majestic Mount Ruapehu before the rain and fog obscured everything.
We had a great few days with Margaret Woodbridge's sister Heather Dockery in the Avondale area of Auckland, helping her enjoy her new retirement. We admired the beautiful garden views from Heather's comfortable house, checked out the views from the top of Mt. Albert, browsed the art galleries of Auckland, bought a bigger suitcase to house all our accumulated treasures, and (thankfully) sold the car to the second bidder. The fall of the Kiwi dollar against the Canadian dollar has served us well for the whole trip, but now that we are on the selling end, of course, we would have liked it to be the other way!

On Saturday morning (May 27) Heather dropped us (and our maximum load of luggage) at the airport (so easy--thanks, Heather, for everything!) and we breezed through the Cathay Pacific check-in process.The flight went smoothly and then we were efficiently processed through all the steps to arrive at the Panda Hotel in downtown Hong Kong by just after midnight their time.
The hotel is very luxurious, and we wallowed in the soft bed for a full night's sleep before taking advantage of the incredible breakfast buffet offering everything from sushi to bacon and eggs. The hotel is very well organized-- they have uniformed personnel stationed everywhere, all wearing audio earpieces (slightly unnerving--I confess to feeling a bit as if I had stumbled into The Matrix!).


We had a few hours before our next flight, so we briefly explored the hot and steamy streets and markets of downtown Hong Kong--fascinating! There was everything imaginable on offer, from exotic fruits to unusual vegetables to fresh hung meat, fresh and dried fish, and even a cage of live toads!! What an eye-opener. As we turned back to the hotel the oppressive humidity turned to pouring rain, which persisted for the rest of our time in Hong Kong.


Back in flight, we were impressed by the mountains of Alaska when we set down for refueling at Anchorage. Almost home (well, relative to New Zealand)!



After the efficiency of the Auckland and Hong Kong airports, we were a bit depressed at the disorganization and slowness of the Toronto airport. Our luggage was a ridiculously long time in coming off the plane, and then we discovered that one of our cases had been left behind in Hong Kong. However, despite the luggage hassles, having to fight off an elderly little Chinese lady who tried to yank my luggage cart away from me, the lateness of the hour at the end of two long days of travelling, and then a grouchy Robert Q shuttle bus driver, our spirits rose as we got closer and closer to home.

What a joy to see dear John and Jess's smiling faces waiting for us in Woodstock! It was hard to stop talking about all our adventures, but we all finally got to sleep about 2 a.m. to the comforting trill of the frogs on the lake. Nevertheless, I snapped awake again at 6:30 a.m. and went out to re-acquaint myself with my pets and garden. Everything is enormously lush and a bit overgrown, but the garden has survived amazingly well, and Molly and Norton seemed very excited to see us! It's great to be back home.


We have had an unforgettable time in New Zealand, and will try to go back as soon as we can. We remember our many new Kiwi friends with great fondness, and will hope to host some of them in Canada whenever they can come to visit.

This will be my last blog entry, so I want to thank all our friends and family who wrote to tell me that you were enjoying following along on our adventures--it has been so much fun composing the entries, and they will be a great record for us of our wonderful experiences. Readers of the blog will also be spared the ordeal of admiring endless trip photos when we see you (I did take over 9,000 photos, after all...)!!

To anyone contemplating a trip to New Zealand, let me say--go as soon as you can, and stay as long as you can!! Kia ora.