Dunedin Pic Spam

Still fighting off the teensiest bit of jet lag, but I AM HERE AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL. The plane ride over was wonderful (I cannot recommend Air New Zealand enough), and I made it to my friends' house in Dunedin on the 29th (lost a day in travel after crossing the international date line). I've mostly been running around doing errands/at home hanging out with dogs for the past few days, and it is glorious.

This bit of Hobbit-ness greeted me upon arrival in Auckland, right about the time I was cursing my bags and vowing that next time I move internationally I'm going to sell everything and then replace it when I get there to avoid having to wrangle about 175 pounds of stuff between four bags.

I arrived about an hour early, breezed through customs, made it over to the domestic terminal, and was able to change my flight to Dunedin to an earlier, direct one. There were a handful of small birds hanging out in the domestic terminal, flitting about and being adorable:

Landed, was picked up by a friend, and proceeded to run errands in town before heading out the peninsula to their home. The flowers here are glorious, and it isn't even fully Spring yet!

Took the dogs for a walk at the nearby Memorial Seat, a washout that was reclaimed and planted with native flora and fauna.

Tuckered out pups.

Black swans!

Woke up the next morning to this.

View out the front door. More cars than usual, as a DreamWorks movie starring Michael Fassbender and Rachel Weisz is filming about two blocks down.

My friends have dubbed these trees across the bay Fred and Ginger.

Around cocktail hour we ran across the street to a friend's boat shed for a glass of wine. Joined by a cheeky seagull.

Today is another glorious day, except for the parts when it's been pouring buckets.

And some more dog walking.

Now, off to put on a costume to go to the Dunedin Musicians Club for a Halloween show!

California Pic Spam

I am at SFO waiting for my flight to depart. No deep thoughts or musings (I know, you're crushed), just a lot of pictures and some great memories. I've been beautifully spoiled in my stopover here in San Francisco. Went in to the city one night for dinner and had some gorgeous weather before the fog rolled in.

Over the weekend we went down to my Aunt and Uncle's cabin in Big Sur by way of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

There was a deer hanging out on the driveway into the cabin, we got quite close before he decided it was time to be moving on.

The view from Nepenthe, which is very similar to the view from the cabin:

The next morning my Uncle and I went to McWay Falls.

On the way back, we saw a young bobcat on the side of the road (apologies for the poor quality of the picture, I was too busy watching to worry about taking pictures). We pulled over to watch, and the little one came quite close to us. I really hope it found its way safely away from the road!

We stopped in Carmel on the way back to walk on the beach and go to dinner where my Aunt and Uncle had had their wedding reception many years earlier.

My plane leaves in about half-an-hour. The next round of pictures will be from New Zealand, with any luck at all!

And I'm Off!

(Safely ensconced at my Aunt and Uncle's gorgeous home in California. The following was written on the plane ride out.)

I love airports. I still love them, even with the crackdowns of the TSA (got yelled at for forgetting to take my shoes off and not putting the laptop in a separate bin), the increasingly cramped and uncomfortable seats, the inevitable screaming child, and all the attendant weirdness of hurtling through the air in a metal container in close proximity to a large number of strangers. But even with all that, on the other side there’s somewhere new or a favorite place to return. The sheer possibility of it all trumps the reality.

The last few days have been an exercise in that sort of optimism. I’m fairly certain my things have been multiplying in dark corners ever since I announced that I would be moving. Many thanks to the people who have helped me move in the last few weeks. Special thanks to my dear, dear friend Emily, who came over to help me with the last bits today (and will be finishing some things off for me tomorrow, because the woman is a saint). Without her, I don’t think I would have made it. But, two large rolly bags, a carry-on, a laptop bag, and nagging sense that I have both forgotten something extremely important and completely overpacked, here I am. I haven’t traveled with this much luggage ...well, ever. When I was a kid, I had an adorable pink suitcase that had been my mother’s, and my parents had a rule that if I packed it (or wanted to bring any other bags), I carried it. I once took a large rolly bag to London for a month, and after lugging that up so many, many stairs, the next time I went I happily spent two months living out of carry-on. But I suppose I can forgive my surfeit of bags due to the whole packing-for-a-year thing. Remind me of that when I’m lugging all of those bags from the international to domestic terminal in Auckland next week.

That I’m going to be in a different country in less than a week hasn’t entirely sunk in for me yet. The goodbyes were all hard, some harder than others. Many people I hope to see again. Others, I know that I won’t. Reality is trumping optimism on that one, unfortunately.

But, all that aside, I’M OFF ON ADVENTURE!

Well ...here I am.

When I first moved to Denver, licking my literal and figurative wounds from a disastrous stint in New York City, the initial plan was to stay for six months to a year. That was seven-and-a-half years ago. Life can be a bit funny that way.

I've loved my time in Denver, I've had a lot of fantastic experiences and met some truly wonderful people who I will miss very much. I even had the "dream" for many of my generation, a good paying job, at a firm that is considered one of the top in the nation, and a mortgage. But, while those are very nice things, it isn't really the life I wanted (still in the process of defining that, by the by). Given that I am lucky/blessed/privileged/(insert adjective of choice here) enough to be able and change my life, I'm moving to New Zealand for a year.

I've always wanted to go to New Zealand, my Mom had a riding student from there when I was a kid, and I loved to listen to her talk about this gorgeous place. Then the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out, and being the nerd that I am, I really wanted to go hang out in Middle Earth. Friends of mine moved there a few years ago, and I no longer had an excuse not to go. I went to visit in January of this year, and absolutely loved it. I was not initially planning to move; however, several weeks after returning, it was illustrated to me how short life can be. I decided, almost on a whim, that I would sell my place and move to New Zealand for a year on a working holiday visa, for a change of pace and a chance to rewrite my life.

My adventure, as I keep insisting on calling it because that makes it a little less scary, kicks off on Wednesday when I fly to San Francisco to spend a few days with family before heading on to New Zealand. In the meantime, I am finishing the last bits and bobs of closing up a life, which will be less adventure and more up packing until 3am, trying not forget anything, a few tears, and lots of giddy excitement.