What's Ahead

My time in New Zealand is coming to an end. Although it has begun to feel like home in some ways, I have avoided settling in too much because I have always known that I would be here temporarily. It has been a difficult balance. I am happy to be leaving to begin new adventures, but I will be leaving behind a unique location and group of people that have become special to me. Now, about those new adventures...

I have spent the majority of my time in New Zealand on the South Island, and the majority of that time in Arthur's Pass. My visa expires at the beginning of June, so I have arranged for May to be a month of travel. For the first two weeks, I am planning a whirlwind tour of the North Island in a rental vehicle. I haven't seen much of the North Island and having my own vehicle will allow me to see what I want quickly. In my time here, I have also enjoyed the generosity of many people willing to pick up hitchhikers, so I intend to return that favour. I haven't driven a vehicle since June 2011, and I've never driven on the left, so watch out if you're nearby!

On the 17th of May, I will fly from Wellington to Christchurch, where my parents will have arrived 30 minutes before me. When I extended my stay in this country, Mom and Dad said they would aim to come visit before I left, and now they are. Because New Zealand is so far away for most of my friends and family, it feels a bit like I've dropped off the planet. Living overseas is a difficult experience to share with someone who has never been where you have, so being able to show my parents what's so great about this country will be a privilege. We are intending to spend most of our time on the South Island before passing back through Wellington on our way out of the country.

When I finally do leave New Zealand for the foreseeable future, I will not be going home immediately. My father was once a Peace Corps volunteer on the island of Saipan in Micronesia, and has not returned for over 40 years. As the planning for my parents' visit to New Zealand developed, it became obvious that this was the best chance he would get to return, and I to see it for the first time. So when I leave Auckland, it will be for Sydney, Tokyo, or Seoul...I can't remember. I'm letting Dad organize that part of the trip. We're just hoping Kim Jong-Un's recent bluster doesn't cause any problems.

On the way back to North America, we will briefly stop in Honolulu to adjust to the time change (great excuse, isn't it?) and add Hawaii to my list of states visited, which already includes Alaska, if you were wondering. Then we will return to Toronto and from there to North Bay, where I expect the exhaustion of all this travel to keep me comfortably in bed for a while.

But wait, there's more! Once I've recovered from crossing the Pacific and North America, I am intending to make a visit to my hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts for the first time in three and a half years. Even more ambitiously, I intend to fly over to Europe to visit friends I haven't seen in almost as long. After a family reunion in August, I think I will have been able to catch up with almost anyone I've ever known. Which is good, because in September I will be upping sticks and moving again. But that's for the next post to describe.

Thanks for reading this far - here's some photos I didn't include in the last post.