There’s good news for student drivers about New Zealand! The driver’s seat is situated higher in the car than the front side passenger seat, so the person sitting in that seat has significantly less opportunity to back-seat drive. Good news since they’ll have plenty of chance to wonder if you’re driving in the middle of the road or not. I evidently am not so good at that.

When I was 16 and learning to drive in Seattle, my mum kept telling me to move over so I wouldn’t take the side view mirrors and door handles off the parked cars on the side of the road. Now I hear that I need to keep out of the ditch on the side of the road.

Andrew, on the other hand, is a champ at driving on the left. He even successfully navigated Dunedin (a not-so-sleepy town these days) during a J-day demonstration (it would be called “Hemp Fest” in the US) and the very narrow roads on the Otago Peninsula. The photo above is of Dunedin from near New Zealand’s only castle on the Otago Peninsula. A great view spot, even if the 2 way road was really only big enough for one car!

Practice does make things better, and I’ve started learning how to stay in the middle of the lane better. I’ve even managed to successfully navigate a town … only about 1,500 people … but a town nonetheless. Don’t worry. No scratches or anything on the car, not even a possum wounded. But so far, my practicing is self limited to smaller cities and country roads.

I wish I could send you all to Rarotonga! I’d never been to a place that was this beautiful before. This picture is of the view from our hotel room … you step out onto the porch and then onto a gorgeous white sand beach and into crystal clear turquoise water. I wish I could say the water was warm and inviting. It was a bit cold and choppy where we were. The day we tried to go kyaking was a bit funny. I think we paddled extra hard just to stay in place.

There was a better beach about a 10 minute walk to the left from our hotel. We were on the windy side of the island (only 32 km around) … they weren’t. The water was warmer when we waded in it and much smoother. There were pretty fish in it, too … except that they ran (OK, swam) away when we got very close.

I think I could have stayed about another week. There was a walk across the center of the island (which is mountainous and tree-covered, as opposed to sandy and FLAT) that we didn’t get to do. The walk we took down the beach one day wore us out so that the next day, when we had planned to do the cross-island walk, we weren’t really up to it. I guess we should have done some training for our vacation. 😉 We did take a mini-stab at it, but decided that starting at 2pm for a 5 hour trek, without sufficient sunscreen, water, and bug juice was a recepie for disaster. Next time, we’ll prioritize better.

Next time, I hope, we’ll take some of you with us. I heard exactly 2 American accents on the islands – mine and Andrew’s. While I like that in some ways, it also makes me think those of us from the United States could do a little more exploring.

Lots of love for now!

It didn’t take long after taking off from LA to know that we weren’t going to be in the US any longer. Just until the wheels were taken up and stowed into the aircraft after takeoff … when the pilots turned off the seatbelt sign. Guess the lawers for Air New Zealand aren’t as worried as the ones from US carriers…. 😉

Oh … also when someone had to lure a “local dog”off the runway in Papeete with a bone so that we could taxi to the terminal.

And finally, when we had to figure out how to slow down to Island Time. A luxurious thing to complain about, I know. But it makes you realize how much stock we put into “becoming”what we do for a living. Being just you and then figuring out who you are is a different question. And hopefully life is bigger than just a job. At least, I hope I’ll have a positive answer to that in just a little while.

First leg of the trip – DONE! Here’s a picture of our very first airplane of the trip (forgive me … I admit to being a nerd)

OK … not so much the longest leg of the trip, but who’s complaining, especially when you get bumped to first class. They even fed us dinner! Tuscan wraps with chicken and sundried tomatoes, with marinara sauce to dip it in. Plus a warm cookie and Starbucks coffee liquor and milk to dip it in for dessert. Maybe we should have taken a picture of that. 😉

I can’t complain about being pampered … especially at the beginning. It helped a bit with the anxiety level, too. It’s wierd packing up the house and leaving for 3 1/2 months … you kinda wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into. Unless you count moving to college (and I’m not), I’ve never been gone for that long.

We decided the best way (other than pampering) to combat trip anxiety is to think about each leg as the only one. So, currently we’re on a short trip to Orange County and the Cook Islands. Just a couple days to warm up and get the stress out of our bodies. We’ll see if we’re ready to go somewhere else after that.

… well, almost.

Andrew and I leave on our RTW trip tomorrow evening. Last night, we looked at our to-do list … everything but 2 items checked off. And – even better – it all fits in the suitcase. With extra room, even! Who ever thought you could put everything you thought you’d need for 3 1/2 months into a large backpack and it would FIT!!! Here’s hoping it really is everything we’ll want or need. 😉

For those of you who don’t know … this trip we’re about to leave on includes the following destinations:

• Los Angeles
• Rarotunga, Cook Islands
• Aukland, New Zealand
• South Island, New Zealand
• THE ROCK, Oz
• Driving up the middle of Australia
• Sydney, Australia
• Gold Coast, Australia
• Cairns/Innisfail, Australia
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Chiang Mai, Thailand
• Phuket, Thailand
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• Safari, Tanzania
• More South Afria, inlcuding Cape Town
• near Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Tallin, Estonia
• Warsaw, Poland
• Bulgaia to Czech Republic in just over a week
• Home…

Makes me want to giggle like crazy. I’m so excited!