And Away We Go To Circle the Globe: Our Trip to New Zealand

Wednesday - Friday, May 4-6

It's true.  This trip would, in fact, have us circle the Earth from start to finish, which made it all the more exciting as we took off on the 4th of May.

First to London...easy two hours;

It was a long morning that began a very long day, but we were up for it!

A couple of ciders at Heathrow were in order in preparation of the first half of a 24-hour flight that would take us to the other side of the world.


Cider: The way to start your day!  (No worries, it was after noon.)




then on to LAX (yes, that way)... about twelve;



Getting sleepy after keeping awake - thank you Air New Zealand for your extensive TV and movie list!




then Auckland...another twelve;

Still kicking!  This thanks goes to over-the-counter sleeping pills for the one who can't do it on her own!

Look at that smile - that girl SLEPT!







until finally - two days later, local time - we touched down in Queenstown, NZ!

The ride over wasn't as bas as we thought it'd be.  Security was definitely heightened, perhaps due to Bin Laden's death.  The underwire in my bra won me a complimentary frisk in Stuttgart, and Chris won the draw for a further random search in London.  Flight #2 of the day brought a string of bad romantic comedies and nearly a season of Modern Family - it was great.  The hour and a half stop in Los Angeles for refueling between the two 12-hour stretches was interesting - I didn't know a person could become a terrorist mid-flight?  By some miracle (called Sominex) I actually managed to sleep 7 hours!  A much needed rest before our first day in New Zealand, especially since we arrived in the morning - no sleep for the jet-lagged!

(I feel like I'm using too many exclamation points...but it was exciting!!!)

A slight delay in Auckland had us to Queenstown by noontime and we were ready. First stop: Arrowtown, for a little look around.

May in New Zealand comes in late fall, but we were still there in time to catch some of the beautiful fall colors.

My favorite part of our first day was one lovely woman we spoke to in a shop in town. She happily informed us that we'd chosen the absolute worst time of year to visit, since we'd missed the best of the colors and it was damp and getting cold.  Swell, we'll just turn around and go home, then!  Then upon overhearing me say how much I was looking forward to going to sleep that night, she piped up to let us know that we wouldn't be sleeping.  No, jet-lag would have us up wide awake in the middle of the night.  Cheers, Arrowtown lady!

But my real favorite part of our first day, aside from the beautiful colors and eventually crashing that evening, was the freaking amazing venison burger I had for lunch.  (Chris had one, too, but he's not writing this.)

Is it weird that I'm including a picture?

We began our trip in Queenstown to attend the wedding of an old friend of mine, and we tried so hard to fight our bodies and stay awake until a respectable hour that first night so we could meet up after the rehearsal dinner for catching up and drinks.  But heads hit pillows and we were done.  Defeated.  Out.  At 6pm.