Aloha New Zealand

The last night in Fiji, after meeting Barbara I called the airport and they found my luggage and it would be there the next day to pick up for New Zealand as I had hoped. So I felt good and went to dinner at the resort.

I chose a table outside and was ready to have some nice curry when I saw a cockroach from far away. Well I thought it was a cockroach but then it flew. I'm no stranger to them, there were tons of them in the Philippines, even in my apartment. Warm countries have them and you have to live with that, but that doesn't mean they aren't disgusting.

So when I saw it fly I couldn't figure out if it was part of the june bug family or if I remembered Kelley telling me she saw flying ones in Taiwan and yes they did exist. Well I soon found out because it flew onto my table. At this point I was freaking a bit. Not because it was on my table but because it could fly and I didn't want it to fly into my face. I decided I wasn't that hungry and just left.

The next morning I went to the airport and indeed they had my backpack and the box of stuff I packed for Kelley and had taped to death because I didn't want it to rip open. They ripped it open and the box was mangled and taped back together. Oh well at least it was there.

Everyone in Fiji told me how wonderful New Zealand was and how it was so beautiful and I can't disagree. It reminds me a lot of Vancouver, everyone is very active out biking or walking. The actual landscape looks a lot like Canada at times, except for the palm trees of course.

Here are a couple of shots from the plane.

Kelley told me they were very strict about bringing food into the country. If you do not claim it they will fine you. A few weeks ago Gwenyth Paltrow had an apple and they fined her $200.

I had a list of everything in the box and when I picked up the box to go through customs I noticed it was a bit wet. There were two jars of bubble wrapped pickles and I was certain one of them was broken in flight. Fortunately, it had just started leaking so when I took everything out of the box to claim for customs they gave me a bag to put it in so it wouldn't leak all over everything else - no one likes pickle scented deodorant.