the journey: one flight left

I made it to Christchurch, New Zealand! What a beautiful place to be!

Our flights were long; well, at least, they scheduled us for way too much time in Denver and perhaps a bit too much in LA, and not nearly enough in Auckland. My baggage was delayed and I had to have my tent “shaken out” in customs, so I missed the flight with about 15 others. Our group is finding a certain cohesiveness in traveling together and spending time together. I’m glad we met in Denver for training first so there were some familiar faces through the entire trip!

This entry is a bit picture happy! The first one is of a group of shuttle drivers. There is 21 of us all together (11 in our flight group) and here is Dave from Seattle, me, Tia from Iowa/Chicago, Marty from Minnesota, and Mike from Oregon/Argentina.

The next picture is of the spectacular sunrise we saw looking over the Pacific before our flight landed in Auckland.

Since I was held up in Auckland and not on the same plane as most of my new friends, I arrived a bit disconcerted that I was the only person at my hotel and would have to spend the whole day by myself. I started walking towards the city square, though, and realized I could definitely embrace the time on my own. I met a few familiar faces every now-and-then, but stopped in city square for my Starbucks (I now have a new Christchurch, New Zealand city mug from Starbucks for my collection)! I spent some time souvenier shopping and moseying around the streets. There were a couple of girls walking with their sheep as the church had a “blessing of the animals” ceremony Sunday afternoon, and a mime who made himself to look like stone (he was incredible)! I also spent a great deal of time in the botanical gardens which is right across the street from my hotel. It’s spring here and the gardens proclaim that loud and clear!

So, I'm here for another day and then, if all goes as scheduled, I'll be in Antarctica in 24 hours.