We are here 1/31/11

It is 3:30 and we are tired but too excited to sleep. 3 hour plane ride but we lost 3 hours so our bodies tell us it is 12:30, still to late.  Boy the shower felt good.  Slow day for blogging, most interesting news to post was the middle eastern woman who got on the plane smelling like a goat.  She walked by us and the odor hung.  Took almost an hour to get the air to clear.  Then there was the Asian lady behind us who coughed and sneezed the whole trip almost non stop. No mask.  Looks like there is a risk we won't be able to come home due to quarantine.  Then we go through customs, there was the Saudi who could not say where he was going or why to the customs agent.  When asked where he was staying, he could not say, and when asked with who, he said my Saudi friend.  Where does he live? I don't know.  How long has he been here?  Three days.  You going any where else in New Zealand?  No. Why not it is a beautiful country?  I don't know.  Then what are you going to do for a month?  I don't know.  OK you can go through?????.  We get through customs, hail a cab.  The driver is middle eastern.  We pull away from the curb.  I ask, how is the weather going to be tomorrow?  He says....I just started a new cab a month ago..... Nan is watching a British sit com.  They just dropped the F bomb........I'm going to bed.

The Third leg is completed 1/30/11

The second leg is finished. 23 hours after it started but because we crossed the international date line we lost a day. Flight over was smooth on a 777 with a full service bar and in-seat entertainment. Food was great and in sufficient quantity. Seating on the plane was 3 rows of 3. Nan was against the window and I was in the middle of 3. Night was long as a rather large person spent most of the night encroaching on my seat space. Funny thing was Nan had the same experience. Wanted to do lunch in Brisbane but energy began to wane so we just went to a series of shops outside the airport. When we returned to the airport and went through security my reputation must have preceded me as I was whisked away from my wife to be patted down and abused once again, only this time by a pleasant elderly gentleman who seemed to approach his position in life with great enthusiasm and no rubber gloves. Few more ours and we leave for New Zealand. We board at 5:20 pm on January 30th and arrive in Auckland at midnight. 3 hour flight but another time zone change. Looking forward to a shower and sleeping in a bed, this time just the two of us.

First leg completed 1/28/11

Hectic couple of days packing and putting out fires.  Like the credit card we were going to use got hacked into and we had to cancel it this morning and then scramble to get one of our other cards set up to let them accept out of the country charges, and that was just the beginning the rest of the day went down hill but we made it.  Left my Mom's house at 3pm and here we are at LAX at 1:30am waiting another hour before we board. Getting through the airport was a trip in itself.  I had my first body scan and had to take my belt off so this dude could look down my pants, not sure if he liked it.  Nan was scanned too.  Look for Nan's results on the internet.  Mine can be found at Ripley's Believe it or not.

Welcome to our Blog!

It was over 8 years ago that I met this interesting lady who was working on Nantucket Island and accepted an offer to visit her and her family on New Zealand.  She was an Inn Keeper on the North Island of New Zealand and I was an Inn Keeper on beautiful Mackinac Island so it seemed a perfect fit.  My brother said " you are going on a 15,000 mile journey to meet a woman you only met once"?  I responded "the worse thing that could happen is I would have a funny story to tell"  My host Joy Calway turned out to be a wonderful person and we had a great time together. I loved the country and Joy followed me back to Mackinac Island where we spent 6 months together.  We decided that  our friendship would continue and a bond was formed.   Joy visited me two more times on the Island.  I always wanted to return and visit that wonderful Island and see Joy and her family.  Turns out Nan and I decided to turn that dream into reality and on Jan 28th we will leave for a 26 day journey to New Zealand.
Our favorite play "Man of La Mancha" has a scene where Don Quixote and his loyal friend Sancho discuss going on an adventure and Sancho proclaims " On to adventure! Marvelous Adventure!" So I, Don Quixote and Sancho (my wife) who is also my Dulcinea are off on our adventure.  We promise not to let any wind mills get in our way but we are prepared to slay dragons if we must.  We hope you will join us frequently while we are on our journey and that God will hold us and our families in the palm of his hand while we are so far away.  God Bless you for visiting our Blog.


John and Nan