Aotearoa 20 – "Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best"

Feb. 7, 2007: Auckland/airport

Today was spent mainly getting ready to leave and leaving New Zealand.....

In the morning we were mostly packing and getting ready to leave, making sure we had everything ready and cleared out of our Top 10. It was a strange feeling. I suppose it shouldn't be a strange feeling to anyone who travels often, but there you have it. It's hard leaving a place that you get attached to, even after only a few weeks.

We stopped by a Christian bookstore (haven't seen one of those in a long time!) on our way to the airport. It was a 7th Day Adventist Christian bookstore. It was kind of fun to poke around and see what they had there. It reminded me of the States a bit. :) The one thing there that I really wanted to get - I thought this was soooo cool! :) - was a Bible in the Maori language. That would be a pretty sweet purchase! Alas, I did not get it. I got the ISBN though, so maybe a potential birthday/Christmas present? (hint, hint) ;)

After that short side trip, there was nothing left but to go to the airport. I think I always have a hard time leaving the places I travel to, and this was no exception. I had some awesome, amazing experiences here, and I didn't really want to leave. At all. I didn't really want to go back to China at this point. I didn't want to leave the green....the mountains....the people....the language....the ocean....the memories..... and so I already wax nostalgic. At the airport, as we were checking in we learned that there is a $25 airport tax. Let that be a lesson to the lot of ye - when traveling to New Zealand, be prepared to pay an airport tax as you leave the country! We were not informed of this when we arrived (yes, we should have been. That would have been the right thing to do. But what can you do?). Fortunately, I did have enough money to left to pay my portion.

My one fun memory from the airport before leaving was that the worker who stamped my passport told me that I should come back to New Zealand as a teacher - they have a shortage, they need more teachers, I'm a teacher in China, it works out! :) Sigh. Wishful thinking. It is a thought though! :)

The flight was very uneventful. No one was sitting next to me, so I was able to take up two seats!! Not too shabby! :)

We arrived back in Hong Kong, where we were again greeted by Stephanie's family. Praise the Lord, Stephanie's aunt was able to get me a train ticket from Shenzhen to Wuhan!! I was really kind of worried about that, but thank You Father, You always provide!!

Sigh.

Already I wish I were back in New Zealand....

So.

If I were to live in New Zealand, and if I had to choose one place of all the places we visited to live, I would probably choose....Wanaka. Definitely Wanaka. I had lots of fun there! I may be biased because that's where we went skydiving and it had Puzzling World, but it was just plain fun! And had a pretty lake. :) But Wanaka or not, I would definitely choose the South Island over the North Island to live. What can I say? I'm a simple, small-town girl. :)