Trip Wrap up – Long trip home; Pics I wish I had taken

December 6^th – the longest day

Having to leave Nanuya Island is a bit sad, as it means our 5-week adventure is coming to a close.  We have enjoyed all of it.  It met, really exceeded our expectations.  New Zealand was even more spectacular than we had expected, the campervan experience not only worked well, we actually liked it so much that we have talked about purchasing a similar (perhaps just a tiny bit larger, so we could have a small toilet – you know, when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go) campervan after we sell our house and downsize…who knows.  We would move there in a heartbeat if we could take the kids with us.  We talked about round the world trip possibilities while relaxing in Fiji, brainstormed how we could come back to New Zealand on a fairly regular basis (but there is a big world to explore too, again who knows),  and really enjoyed being with each other virtually every minute of the 5 -week trip.  Many friends kept questioning Donna about how could she spend so much time with her husband without a break, and “camping” for a month – are you out of your mind?  Well, Donna loved campervanning, and we are definitely “sympatico travelers”.  I won’t speak for Donna, but only for myself – I loved the trip, and loved all of  the time with Donna…. The only small tensions we had basically related to my minimeltdowns while driving the campervan in city traffic, otherwise, it was smooth sailing.  For the most part we have very similar interests and enjoy being with each other and doing the same stuff, and we made a good team with Donna navigating and planning out the days highlights, and me doing the driving.  It’s kind of like Donna being a great chef, me being a great eater – sympatico!

So, here’s the mini version of our long trip home – and I doubt I’ll get much sympathy.  We did our almost 6-hour ferry ride back to Port Demaru, then a bus ride to the airport.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 11 PM, but didn’t leave until 5 AM.  We made the mistake of eating the first meal (supposedly an omelet) they provided us on the plane, and between that “food” and the food at the Nadi airport (which by the way isn’t air conditioned, except in the duty free area)…our stomachs did not recover for a week (I’ll spare you the grisly details).  Even though we had 5 hours between our scheduled flights in LA, we missed our connection to Denver, and after standing in long lines and aborted trips to hotels that we were supposed to stay at but no longer had any rooms, and the run around from Air Pacific, we finally got to bed  in LA at midnight for a whopping 4 hours of sleep before returning to LAX to catch the 6:05 AM SW flight back to Denver.  An exhausting end to an otherwise fabulous trip.

Since I don’t have any pics to go with this narrative, I am including four shots that I wish I had taken.  These were taken by Rob and Mieke, the dutch couple we met back on the south island of NZ.  Fantastic photos.

 Hector's dolphin leaping

 Hector's dolphins

 Yellow eyed penguins

Yellow eyed penguin