New Zealand January 6-8, 2016

Our trip to New Zealand was long, long, long. Exhausting travel followed by even more exhausting periods of standing and waiting. Then cramped hours spent in various airplanes trying, futilely, to sleep. We left our house in Provo at around 9am and took the shuttle to the Salt Lake City airport where we flew to L.A. After that, it was 9 hours of waiting to check in at the Fiji Airways desk with nowhere to sit but the concrete floor. 

Waiting for nine hours at LAX. Thank goodness for snacks.

Once we boarded the plane to Fiji that night it was an eleven-hour flight. We tried to sleep, but sitting almost completely upright (let’s be honest, the recline position isn’t much of a recline at all in economy class) in a chair crammed in between two other people with whom you have to share armrests is not especially conducive to sleep. By the time we got to Fiji I was feeling that wild-eyed, empty desperation that only sleep deprivation can produce. The fact that I knew I would be boarding another plane in a few short hours didn’t even diminish the sense of relief and gratitude at getting off of that airplane.

In Fiji, I noticed two things: the lovely balminess of air drenched in moisture and the chirping of tropical birds greeting us as we walked down the plywood-and-chicken wire runway that led off the plane. It was raining, and misty purple clouds cloaked the tops of the mountains in the distance. Three skirted men played ukuleles and sang traditional island music that soothed our tattered nerves. I was suddenly and inexplicably grateful for the humidity that beaded on my forehead and frizzed my already troubled hair. The next leg of the trip was better after that. Two more hours in the airport and another 3-hour flight to Auckland was nothing once I felt that velvety tropical air like a gloved hand on my face. Once I felt the presence of the equator.

Ira, Sadie and Brennan at the Fiji airport.

In Auckland, we were met with more rain. Wonderful rain. Some members of our group were disappointed that the sun wasn’t out. Maybe it’s easier to appreciate the beauty of New Zealand under the full force of the sun, but for me the rain was another reminder that here we will be always surrounded by water. Water everywhere. Water that brings life. How I miss water living in the Utah desert. So I welcome rain. I will be happy here with the rain.