Sumner time

I rounded out a full week reacclimatizing in New Zealand at a lovely Airbnb in Sumner, just soaking up alone-time and relaxing to a ridiculous extent. I did continue taking walks on the beach each day and getting an afternoon chai at one or another of the cafes in town and then walking on the beach some more. 

And that's about all I felt up to doing! A little post-winter down-time that I wish I could have lasted even longer, but the travel wheels were in motion and soon I was off to the next stop....

The Outside World

I finally, finally left Antarctica two weeks after originally planned. At the airfield, the Basler was standing by to start taking people into South Pole for the beginning of summer there...

...but me, I was northbound on a nearly empty C-17, with just a couple of the other winter-over stragglers and some people who had just come down for the first couple weeks of the summer.

Out the window, the iced-over seas surrounding Antarctica...

...gave way to the warmer waters closer to New Zealand...

...until finally we landed back at Christchurch airport, 8.5 months after I last left it, and said goodbye-for-now to the Antarctic program.

It was nearly dark when we arrived that night, but the air felt thick with humidity (read: normal, to normal people) and I woke the next morning on the 8th floor of a hotel to an amazing sight:

In case you don't know, I should be sure to tell you: The outside world is an amazing place. There are things like Matcha Lattes...

...and entire plates full of fresh food.

With some McMurdo winter-over friends who had left the Ice a couple weeks prior but were still in the area, I took an afternoon trip to the Christchurch-area port town of Lyttelton:

And the next day I took an hour-long walk on the beach near Kaiapoi.

Total heaven. And more to come...

Some Fairlie great time

After three nights with my lovely new Kaiapoi/Christchurch friends (dressed up, in this pic, for being on their way to the horse races for the day)...

...I headed south for three more utterly wonderful, relaxing days with my Ice friends (and part-time Kiwi residents) A & E at their hand-crafted home in Fairlie.

Any of my 2.7 readers with a frighteningly good memory might recognize these two from a visit paid them here during the Great New Zealand Tour of 2015. During that trip, there was a lot of tree cutting-down and wood-chipping going on. This time I got to experiment with a different side of things, as A had planed some of the plethora of wood in their work shed and got me set up on the power sander...

...and I proceded to go nuts making (spoiler alert, Family!) coaster and cutting-board presents for the upcoming Christmas.

Other than that and a wee bit of weeding in a pathetic attempt to earn my keep, it was an awesomely gluttonous few days of lots of sleep, bottomless cups of tea, great food, even better conversation, a walk in the rain, and trying to make sense of what's happening in America right now, from afar. Also, we woke one night to strange sounds and a subtle sliding of the earth as Kaikoura--a heavily touristed city that's a good 4.5-hour drive from where we were was hit with a significant earthquake. Very grateful for all that there were not many fatalities, though it's very lucky that I stayed south of Christchurch, as traffic north of there is completely blocked.

Too soon, it was time to leave the bucolic haven of Fairlie...

...and head back to Christchurch. Setting out, tomorrow, on the next leg of the adventure. More soon!

Back in New Zealand!

Magically, after a year plus on the coldest, driest, highest, windiest continent, I was back in New Zealand, almost like the whole thing was a dream.

Or maybe the dream was going out for brunch the morning of my first full day back, overwhelmed by the sight and taste of food that has not been in deep freeze storage for the better part of the past decade...

...and the colors and amazing smells of Christchurch's botanical gardens...

...or going to the restaurant Mexico specifically for its plum margarita, which I've been thinking about regularly for the past year.

After some time in Christchurch proper, I went to stay a few nights with friends of friends in the town of Kaiapoi, just a bit north of the city. Along with an absurd amount of sleeping and catching up on quiet time and internet tasks, I learned a good bit cooking wonderful dinners each night with my hosts and got quickly addicted to an Australian cooking competition show that they enjoy watching each night.

Two days consecutively (couldn't get enough!) I also took a 6-mile round-trip walk from Kaiapoi to the beach, enjoying the bucolic scenery along the way and the sight of the ocean after a fully frozen, land-locked year.

The water was COLD but I was happy.

So long (for now), NZ

Once we got back to Auckland from Fiji, we had just about a week remaining in NZ. It was a wonderful last week, full to to brim with activity. We stopped in the Waitomo Caves area and took a very cold but very fun inner-tube caving adventure over underground waterfalls and through glow-worm caves. Then continued south with a stop in the funky, art-deco city of Napier (which I took an instant liking to)...

...caught the ferry in Wellington back to the South Island, once more appreciating the seal colonies on the coast near Kaikoura...

...before making our way finally back to Christchurch. There, SR treated me to an amazing birthday extravaganza of all kinds of my favorite things: yoga, chocolate, massage, coffee, sushi, cheesy movie, and more. What a sweetheart.

And we enjoyed time with J & A, our CouchSurfing hosts in Christchurch, who also contributed to the birthday fun with a crisp made with local fruits for dessert.

Finally, it was time to tie up all loose ends in preparation for our flights back to the States, including saying goodbye to the Mint Machine, which despite looking rather worse for the wear, got us full circle on our New Zealand adventure and will hold a special place in my memory.

Then again, this whole trip will hold a special place in my memory. It's been a great adventure to the bottom of the planet...and now back home for some much-anticipated time with family and friends.

I'm signing off of blog-world until July, when (spoiler alert!) you can rejoin me from the emerald green hills of Ireland! and beyond...

Auckland

We had a couple of nights in the big city, and though there's way more to do in Auckland than we had time for, we enjoyed the city scape (nice view from our hostel room!)...

...had a really yummy dinner in Ponsonby with two Denverites living in Auckland who we met on our Milford Track hike last month...

...took a ferry to Rangitoto Island, out in the bay.

It's a volcanic island, and though it hasn't been active for centuries, there is still exposed volcanic rock everywhere. So cool.

There were even these great lava tubes that we could walk into. Though this picture sort of makes it look like I'm about to be beamed up to the mother ship.

And the view from the peak of the island back at the city was so nice.

I also caught a yoga class while we were in town, and in our brief walk around the city center, I was impressed at how lively and bustling Auckland is. (I've also heard that it's the city that has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world, which seems kind of funny at first but actually makes a lot of sense.) Could easily have spent more time here, but we have plane tickets for a gluttonous vacation from our vacation. Stay tuned!

White Island - again!

Okay, I can't help but post too many pictures about our second--and this time, successful--trip to Whakatane and into the Bay of Plenty to White Island volcano. I LOVE VOLCANOES! This time, the sea was WAY calmer and we got there without sea sickness.

The crew motored us to shore in groups in a dinghy. (Check out the low rainbow behind the boat!)

And we got decked out in our helmets and gas masks and headed toward the crater(s).

The sulfur deposits were INCREDIBLE.

As was the opportunity to get this close to the main crater of an active volcano.

The colors and the scenery were just so beautiful.

And the ruins of the sulfur mining operation that used to exist here lent an even eerier feeling to the island.

On the way home, we saw schools of these amazing, bright blue fish, plus several bottle nose dolphins. No pictures of those, unfortunately, but a nice view of the volcano as we motored away from it, back to the mainland...