Our last trip on the left side of the road

Wow, I really do not want to write about this. It's completely irrational, I know. I'm sitting here right this moment in Cleveland, so obviously we did eventually leave New Zealand. Yet I don't want to officially see it here on the blog.

(Though this is the last of the posts from NZ, our trip didn't end here and I'm going to include a few more posts from Sydney and then our return to the states, where we spent some time with family and friends before making our way east to Ohio. Just to give it all a proper wrap-up.)

On Saturday, 22 January 2011, we piled up the remnants of our temporary household and left them for Tony and Grant to sort out, packed our belongings into Tony's station wagon (which must've had a Harry Potter extendable charm on it to fit everything!), and followed our two friends to the Auckland airport.

This was what was left of us at 679 Riddell Road after six months. If you ever have to move somewhere just for a while, I can give you a definitive list of exactly what is needed to maintain some semblance of your life. Do you love our gorgeous duvet covers?? :o)

I wonder how the current residents fared with the almost-snow that hit Auckland (really a big deal there) yesterday. I believe they were coming in from Las Vegas, so I'm sure they were less than happy with the unheated, drafty house on the cliff :o)

Trey and I took one last look at our gorgeous view from the bedrooms upstairs.

Including, of course, the one wall decoration we had -- a Christmas greeting from dear Samantha back home in Ohio.

Trey and Laurel both kissed the walls (for luck?) and we were off.

(Disclaimer: these were all taken with my little point and shoot. Duh! Obviously!)

Above are Tony (red shirt) and Grant, our lovely and helpful Kiwi friends who, along with their families, will remain in our good memories of New Zealand forever.

And we're outta here. Haere rā.

We love you New Zealand!!!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Girls' Night on Karaka Bay

I had the pleasure of the company of some delightful women while we lived in Auckland. A group of them (Jenny, Marie, Amanda, and Kathy) joined me one evening when the air started to warm up and the gales stopped their howling. We sat outside overlooking Karaka Bay and the volcanic islands, drank wine, ate Lisa's Chunky Dips, and laughed and laughed. 

My dear friend, Samantha, from here in Ohio, had sent this very cute video to everyone, as I'd told her earlier that I had a girls' night planned. She wanted to say hello to everyone. So at the end of the night, we all made a return video for Sam. I hope this loads fairly quickly. It's quite cute and I love to hear everyone's accents (except Kathy, the American) again! 

I miss these girls!! How I'd love to sit out there with a few bottles of wine with them tonight! xoxo to all!!!

The end of the end

Last batch of the random everyday sights photos. As I said in the second of these three posts, if you'd like further explanation, please see the first and second posts. 

St Heliers library. I still carry our cards.

Paddle Popssssss!!!!!!

Loved this little Italian takeaway spot down the street. We could walk there, pick up dinner, wine from the wine guy, and then wander back home again, hands full of good stuff.

Paddle Pop eating spot outside of our local dairy.

The sad, sad ugly view that I had to face while doing dishes and cooking meals.

Pak 'n Save -- always an adventure!

From the top of Waimarie Street, where we turned to go to all sorts of places.

Relaxing in St Heliers.

Avos, strawbs, whatever was in season.

Every day the cows lined up around 5pm to go in for dinner.

Loved these little button flowers.

Taken from our bedroom window.

Beautiful flowers, growing wild everywhere.

Napkins? Serviettes!

With little pictures of eggs and meat pies. Of course.

Steinlager signs on every corner. At least we can get this here in Ohio.

Dental surgery here in this little house! What fun! We saw many examples of this and always found the thought of it quite funny.

All the nice people doing their daily stuff in St Heliers, where we went to the butcher, library, post, fishmonger, fruit and veg market, small grocery store, barber, ATM, book store, and to a few different restaurants.

The last photo I took with my good camera. Laurel and her dear friend, Charlotte.

Our mud boots, ready for action!

This guy and his partner were always talking to each other up above our bedroom.

And, last but certainly never least -- the light that hit the cliffs out on Mototapu for just a minute each night at sunset.

With that, our next stop is the airport. We're nearly finished, friends!
xo, K.

The middle of the end

Part 2 of the random shots of everyday life. For further explanation see Part 1.

Odd little cars here and there.

The white painted bike at the scene of a fatal truck/bicycle accident on Tamaki Drive.

De Fontein again. Love that Belgian beer!

My lovely little (summer) breakfast spot.

Hours and hours in the pool. In Florida, we're all pretty used to having our own pool, but my Ohio kids are not used to that idea at all. It was fun.

Cones! Everywhere! Millions of them. Dennis found the mis-use of traffic cones a particular bit of Kiwi folly.

Always people having fun in Mission Bay.

My favorite apartment building in Mission Bay.

And the inside of one of the apartments one evening...

Cliff Road, close to our house.

The road home from St Heliers.

Cecil's Sushi. Every ... Friday? I think at the kids' school.

St Heliers.

Walking to Mission Bay.

Curious sign warning of climbers falling from above. Very strange.

Summer evening at Mission Bay.

Our garages.

The mailbox.

Heading out through the really annoying gates for one of our last walks.

Our next door neighbor's goddess.

Very artistic house a few doors down and fence made of big black rocks,which I always wanted to touch.

View of our street, heading south toward work, toward school, toward Churchill Park.