I’m back! Have you missed me? My renewal for my WordPress account is coming up for renewal, so I best get my money’s worth and post some memories.
Off onto another recap of a past trip! This trip was Steve’s retirement present and I got to tag along! We were off to New Zealand for three weeks, and you get to come also. Lucky you! For those of you who know nothing about New Zealand, it is comprised of two islands. North and South. Those are easy names to remember, unlike many of the rivers that Steve will fish!
We will stay in Taupo on the North Island for one week and then rent a car on our travels on the South Island. We will stay at three fishing lodges, and one fancy schmancy place that I picked out. Steve will fish from the fancy schmancy place also. Actually it’s not fancy schmancy, just really nice, but how often do I get to write fancy schmancy? How often do you get to read those words? Likely never again, but one of my goals in this blog is to improve the vocabulary of my dear readers!
Dinner on the flight to Los Angeles from New York. This flight was on United Airlines.
Salad greens with butternut squash.
Short ribs.
Gelato with strawberry and chocolate sauce.
Then milk and warm cookies.
Lost Angeles is so pretty at night with all the cars lighting up the road. Side streets look blissfully empty.
This airport has the worst signage. We thought TBIT on the departure board meant To Be Something Something. Instead it meant Tom Bradley International Airport. It was a good thing we asked someone, otherwise we would have missed our plane, and this excellent adventure would never have happened!
Then we needed to find the shuttle, and then the departure area, there has to be a better way! But finally we found the correct terminal!
As we were flying business we got access to a fancy lounge.
Newspapers in so many languages!
The lounge has won awards for nicest airport. I can see why. These are the outdoor fire pits.
Of course I found the chocolate mousse and a decaf cappuccino!
Not looking forward to the 13 hour flight form Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand. Total time form NYC to Taupo, New Zealand our final airport is 26 hours! Ouch!
Here is Steve enjoying his little nook on the Air New Zealand plane.
I forgot to turn the flash back on, but the first course was a lovely tomato and mozzarella salad. The lighting on the plane was a calming purple hue. It was very restful.
I chose the parsnip and spinach soup for my entree. When I have a long plane flight I often just have the soup for my entree.
Can’t skip ice cream with fruit for dessert.
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean at sunrise.
Breakfast was a fruit salad.
Croissant and toasted fruit bread with orange marmalade.
Then more carbs with the whole wheat waffle with dried fruit and cream anglaise. No pictures of Steve’s food as we were behind each other. I am sure Steve had the omelette!
Here is a map of our flight.
You can see a close up of the Pacific. This is where the tectonic plates are colliding and one is going under the other.
Steve will not be happy with these next two pictures but I don’t care. And since it is my blog, I get to post almost anything that I want. Steve does get to have the edit finger function and remove stuff that I might get in trouble with. Let’s see what happens here!
Anyway, there are certain haircuts on guys that I really like. This is one of them. Steve does not like to wear his hair this long and since it is his head, I let him wear it however he likes to wear it.
The guy changed his clothes before he landed. Perhaps he was meeting someone who liked his hair the way he wore it. Or perhaps his lover would rather he wear his hair shorter like Steve does!
One time a long time ago, I got my hair cut short and my ears pierced. Steve almost cried when he saw me. Now I try to let him know if I am going to do a drastic hair change!
It is strange getting used to the time. It is Monday morning around ten. Back home it is Sunday afternoon around four. We lost all of Sunday traveling but will get two Monday’s coming back!
That’s it for today, or tonight, or tomorrow in that case as we left on the 14th of November her and will arrive in New Zealand on the 16th!
Do you have a dream trip for when you retire?
Or are you already retired and you went on your dream trip already?
Do you wear your hair the way your significant other prefers, or do you say “To hell with you!”?
