part_5

We estimated around a 4 hour trip back to Christchurch. Another guidebook said 5 hours. In any case it did not seem that we had far to go, and so the morning was not rushed.

We started out, stopping along the way to photograph some flowers. There was an abundance of wildflowers along the side of the road. I tried to get some photos with Mt. Cook in the background. I could have spent a few hours working on composition as we drove along the lakeshore and new groups of flowers presented themselves. Alas, there was not enough time to do this and we motored on.

	A view of the valley in the Mt. Cook vicinity.

	There were fair number of these flowers in a variety of colors along the roadside...

The main chore of the day was to clean the RV, re-pack our things in the duffel bags and take a shower. The park we had stayed at the previous night did not have the facilities required, and so we opted to just stop somewhere at a park enroute to Christchurch.

This worked out according to plan, but the stop took a lot longer than expected. Our original plan had been to visit the anarctic center prior to returning the RV. This was no longer going to happen. Soon enough, it was unclear that we would even be able to return the RV in time.

As captain, I ordered maximum speed. The RV shuddered and shook, and the engine screamed. I actually passed a few cars, a Maui motorhome and a semi. At times I was actually doing over 100 kph (110 once, but it really felt like we were flirting with disaster in that the RV might suddenly break apart).

No worries, however. At 16:05 we returned the RV and caught a taxi to the motel we had selected. The Akron.

We walked into town that night and ate at Spagalinis. Not knowing our way around, we took a very long route to and from the restaurant.

After dinner we sat at the botanical gardens for a while, then walked over to admire the rose gardens.

Returning home, we watched "Con Air" on TV. It was the first time we'd watched the TV in almost 3 weeks. Sort of like not eating meat for a long time, then opting to eat a Big Mac. Different, but not particularly satisfying.

All in all, it was nice to no longer have to drive the RV. It was fun, but now life was getting more and more "normal". Tomorrow would be our last day in Christchurch. We still had no idea how we were going to spend the day.

Although it was nice to sleep in a real bed, the bed was too soft so both Pam and I awoke with sore backs.

We had to repack everything correctly to survive the flight home since the owner wanted us to move to a different room. This took about an hour.

Afterwards, we went to a diner/cafe around the corner called Sophies. The food was ok, but somewhat overpriced. The really interesting thing was that there were pictures of Sophie everywhere. She was there in person as well. The staff was not friendly, and we noticed that only other tourists were present. Not a good sign if locals don't like the place.

After breakfast we wandered on down to the downtown area. In the light of day we were able to get our bearings and realized how close we were to everything. A major goal was to avoid the street where the large barking dog had greeted us on the sidewalk.

We went through the museum and looked at the ancient birds of New Zealand. Some pretty big critters. The large eagles used to snatch the Maori kids, which the hunters didn't like, so they hunted those brids of prey to extinction.

After that we headed down the street towards the cathedral. Spent 5 minutes there. It was being strengthened to handle earthquakes a little better. Overall it was simply not in the same category (in terms of the "wow" factor) as cathedrals in Europe.

There were a lot of little shops in the area as well. Surprisingly, we couldn't find any souvenirs worth buying.

Our plan had been to go down to the anarctic center that night, but opted to bail on that and head back into town for dinner.

Had dinner at a bar and listened to a couple perform. A guy played guitar while the lady sang. Popular songs. There were some electronics to handle percussion, so it sounded pretty good. I told Pam I could probably play like that in 5 years or so. We'll see.

About that time was also the 2^nd true tragedy of the trip. I had been drinking Speights beer all night. It was on tap. I was at the bar getting another one when I noticed that the girl on my right was drinking from a glass with Monteiths etched on it. It turns out that this bar stocked my favorite beer, and that I could have enjoyed my last night in NZ in proper style!

As we were walking back, we passed an older gentleman carrying an empty wine bottle. His wife was just behind him. As we passed by, he stopped and asked Pam how Iowa was. Her jaw dropped:

He: "Well, you just look like you are." Points to her shoes, and she looks. "You are, aren't you?"

Turns out that we had talked to him earlier in the day while waiting to cross at a stoplight. Now he was dressed up in a suit and tie and we didn't recognize him as fast as he did us.

That night we watched a movie with Susan Sarrandon, Paul Newman and Gene Hackman. It seems to be more difficult to find a good movie than should be the case.

This is a very long day due to crossing the dateline in the eastbound direction. So there is a Part I and a Part II.

I slept very lightly last night, since I did not want to miss the alarm going off. I had not heard it when we were camped at Doubtful Sound - it didn't matter then, but it would matter now.

Woke up and got the bags outside. The shuttle showed up at 8:30 and we went to the airport. Very knowledgeable driver. Learned a few more details about NZ.

Upon arrival I asked to change the departure time from 9:40 to 12:30 so that we could walk over to the anarctic center. This was not a problem.

We left the carryon bags in an airport locker and walked over. There are blue footprints which one follows, with an occassional white penguin footprint. Winds through the airport and takes about 15 minutes of walking to get there.

Had a nasty, nasty breakfast. It was by far the worst meal we had the whole time we were in country. Do not eat breakfast there!

The tour was pretty good, though. Educational and it gave an idea of life at the research center. They even had a room filled with snow where you could go in to get the "full experience". We figured we would get plenty of chances for that in Minnesota, so we passed on that.

Got back and caught the flight up to Auckland. We had 8 hours before the flight to LAX departed.

First thing we did was to get some lunch (at the airport). This proved to be a mistake since we ended up not feeling well at all afterwards. After some discussion we decided to just hang out at the airport and do nothing for a day. At first this seemed like a waste of a vacation day. As the day progressed, it was great! This was an opportunity to do nothing for a day. We had been so busy in the last few months, and would continue to be so for the next few months that this was our only chance to do nothing and not feel guilty about it.

We visited the various shops. There are two America's Cup boats on display in front, so I looked at those. We had dinner at McDonalds. We played Air Hockey for a while at the video arcade, splitting wins/losses pretty evenly. Played a driving game as well with similar results.

At 10pm we headed over to the boarding area for the flight home. This was NZ2. We had flown on NZ1 to get here.

As we were waiting near the gate, we saw the woman who had been in the aisle seat on the LAX/NZ flight. Amazing! We chatted for a bit about how our vacations were, then boarded the aircraft.

Awoke after a few hours. Pam was not getting sick, but was having some sharp pains in her abdomen. Sounded kind of like stress. Maybe she was so worried about getting sick that a new set of symptoms emerged.

The flight was a bit late getting into LAX. We cleared customs, got our bags, cleared the bags and went to find the shuttle. Checked the bags in at the TWA counter and proceeded to the gate. Made it there with 10 minutes to spare.

Unfortunately, Lucia and Brad had driven up from San Diego (about 2 hours each way). It was great to see them, but the visit was far too short. We heard the final call and said our goodbyes.

At St. Louis we had some Burger King food for dinner, then called Connie to see if we could get a ride from the airport. Got the answering machine, so we won't know until we land.

Boarded the flight at 10 pm and took off. Finally, the ordeal would be over. My thinking proved to be too optimistic.

We did fly to Cedar Rapids, but the airport reported fog and visibility was below minimums. So we circled for a few minutes, then returned to St. Louis.

We returned and boarded a shuttle bus for the Henry the VIII motel. It was actually a pretty nice place. TWA even gave us an overnight kit, which I thought was kind of neat.

It was 1:30 local time when we crawled into bed. It had taken us 36 hours to get here from Christchurch.

Awoke this morning after 6 hours of sleep. Feeling a lot better than last night. It's a bit drizzly outside this morning.

Caught the shuttle back to the airport without any problems. We had left the checked in bags at the airport, where the attendants assured us that they would be on the flight the next day.

Landed in Cedar Rapids, and were greeted by Connie (Pam's aunt) when we got off the airplane.

We had seen a lot in the past few weeks, but it was good to finally be home. We have 3 days to get everything packed and loaded onto a Ryder truck to move up to Minneapolis, so full recovery from the vacation will have to wait...