I spent the night in my hammock in the backyard, which got its first real rain test, holding up fairly well I might add. The only tricky bit is adjusting the rain fly correctly. I was surprised to find Shad awake before me, but then again he slept in the tiny flat where two young children wake up early and make noise. I finished off the last of the pancake batter for breakfast and then worked on typing up my journal entries so I could finally make some posts online. This lasted until lunchtime, and then after that it was off to return the bike. I had hopes of going for a bike ride or doing some sightseeing or something, but the time and the motivation just slipped away from me.

Shad went with me to return the bike, since he needed to get a box to put his own in. Adventure Cycles is kind of a weird shop. When we got there, the owner Bruce put us to work packaging some shoes for him. This was in return for the box... I think. Then he drove us and the box back to Kahu's, giving us a shoebox full of slightly squished or moldy nectarines. He's an interesting character for sure.

I wanted to walk around and see something, and the mall was the only nearby thing I could think of. So Shad and I set off for a walk. At the mall Shad found some packaging supplies and I was disappointed in my window shopping. Malls are kind of stupid places, and I have to go every once in a while to remind myself of that. We had some slightly questionable mall food (my Chinese smorgasbord perhaps a little more questionable than Shad's Indian dish) and left. At least we got out for a walk, right?

We spent the night making things out of discarded bamboo we found in Kahu's bamboo grove. They're not extremely Kiwi souvenirs, but I reckon we made some cool things anyways. Then we spent the rest of the night hanging out with Kahu and one of his friends. I didn't get the blog updated. I didn't really explore Auckland. I didn't call our New Plymouth host Kim like I had said I would. I feel like this trip is ending too quickly, perhaps not too soon, but definitely too quickly.

written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 11, 2010 from Auckland, New Zealand
from the travel blog: AeonHunter in New Zealand
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Even though I woke up early again this morning it still managed to fly by. It rained quite a bit last night and the hammock still kept me dry. I did have a puddle of water which kept formin gin the rain fly, but I think that's an easily fixed problem. It kept raining after the sun rose and didn't really stop till about 10:30. We were worried it wouldn't and were so glad when it did. We didn't want to pack wet tents and I still had clothes on the line! Luckily we got everything dryed and packed just in time. Kahu graciously offered to give us a ride to the airport and way too quickly we were there.

We had an ugly surprise when we got to the airport. Shad's flight time had been changed and his plane was departing as we walked in the door! There was a good amount of confusion and worry, as he hadn't been notified and we weren't sure what was going to happen. As I got into the check-in line for my own flight, Shad was sent through a maze of offices to find answers. It turns out he somehow fell through the cracks when Air Pacific notified people, so they put him on my flight free of charge. Now he has a 24hr layover in LA instead of two slightly shorter layovers in Fiji and LA. I'm kind of glad he's on my flight. This way we can still get an end of the road picture and truly finish this trip together.

The flight is only slightly miserable. I've gone through two movies so far and will watch another one or two. I doubt I'll sleep much if at all. The plane is full and I can feel the cramped quarters starting to stress me out a bit. I need to put one of my New Zealand lessons to use:
NZ Lesson Number 1 ~ Just Chill Out.

A Great Day to Kick Back

End of the Road