New Zealand Elf (not) on a Shelf

Ok, so a lot went on in New Zealand. I'm going to post the highlights. A weird and wacky array of stories and memories that I took from my/our trip.

The first 10 days I spent in New Plymouth, prior to Mark's arrival were about catching up with friends and family, meeting or getting reacquainted with my parent's circle of friends, working a bit (Colorado real estate doesn't stop because I left the country) and perhaps becoming comfortable again with driving on the left side of the road. 

Meet my mom. Sandra. She is a social butterfly with a quick wit and penchant for fancy dress... as it quickly became apparent. 

My mom handed me an ELF costume within an hour of my arrival and announced that "we" had a few Christmas themed engagements this week. Like, at least 3! Yes, that is half a week of being dressed like an elf!

Don't tell her, but I was kinda excited. And fairly impressed that the costume (mostly) fitted me. Good job mommy!

Turns out that her walking group (Sunday, Saturday, Wednesday... Thursday?  Everyday???) had tons of plans that involved power walking in costume, judging each other, gift giving and generally taking in the sights and soul that is Christmas in New Plymouth. There was no shortage of laughter, "flat whites" and "cabinet food"... IE food that is on display in a cabinet just prior to being purchased. Cabinet food takes the form of sandwiches, muffins, cakes and treats for the most part and every hardware store, garden center, mall, side street and beach seems to have a facility that sells cabinet food and espresso drinks. (Although kiwis appear to be almost exclusively drinking "flat whites". What is a flat white? To all intents and purposes, a flat white is a latte with a bit less air in the milk!)

Here are a selection of photos I thought you might like. Otherwise known as evidence - I called upon some of these to excuse myself for not being totally available at client's convenience, several times. Best to be honest, eh?!

What's that you ask? Who is the doll?  His name is Lewie. He's their 4th child. Adopted obviously. And dare I say, the spoiled one. They take him traveling all over the world and his childhood photo album is crammed with photos with mom and dad. 

Dad carefully applies WD40 to my bike (his bike). Later telling me that the brakes were shot... And wondering why I had questions as to the safety of the vehicle he lent his first born.

It was a tad on the cold and grey side, so we had to don sweaters over our costume masterpieces.

This was the evening we rode bikes around Bell Block, taking in the festive decorations that the residents were becoming well known for.

People actually let us stroll around in their yards!

Just a girl and her mom. Dressed up. Going biking. And walking...

And more walking...

In NZ, if you are too short, they make you wear platform sneakers. I know, I know... the liability... the health insurance issues.... THEY DON'T EXIST HERE.

Half of her genes were a gift to me... I feel that answers any questions you may have had, are having or will have in regard to my questionable style, sense of humor and much more.

And just like that, my 10 days alone in New Zealand at the mercy of my parents, came to an end and we found ourselves at the New Plymouth (public) airport, awaiting the arrival of Mark. Dressed like elves.

The end.

New Zealand Bound

Hey all,
In case you weren't aware, 2019 marks the first year in 13, that I'll be spending time with the fam in NZ... A summer Xmas!

As usual, fleeing the country requires an insane amount of organization and coordination. Airbnb guests must be taken care of and that means hiring a cleaner. Our sweet Wrigley kitty needs care and that means there is coordination between Airbnb guests, neighbors and a pet sitter (Pamela). Work doesnt stop and clients needs are accommodated both on the ground in Colorado and from New Zealand too. And last but not least, because Mark was not to join me for the first 10 days, we collaborated on packing for Xmas and other gear needed for journeying and adventures.

By the time I left for the airport, I was ready for a wee break and the thought of 17 hours between Denver and Auckland, all to my self, was pretty sweet! Sweet enough to forget that economy seats are not getting any bigger, anyway.

So what does the journey back to my home town look like?

12:25 pm - Pick up by awesome Dave for the drive to Park n Ride in Boulder
12:47 pm - AB1 bus to Denver International Airport (55 minutes long)
2:00 pm - Check in and baggage drop (I have one to check and one to carry on)
2:30 pm - Through TSA and taking the train to Gate B
3:45 pm - Boarding my first flight.
4:15 pm - Flight Denver to San Francisco departs!

Oh what a beautiful afternoon/evening! We chased sunset from Colorado all the way to California, arriving in the bay area as the last rays of light disappeared and the city lights ramped up.

In San Fran from 6:00 pm to 7:40 pm, I met two handsome young men from NZ and had dinner with them. Both heading home... one after a month long adventure vaca in Colorado, the other having been living in Denver for the past 3 years.

8:30 pm - departure to Auckland is a go!
Flight time was 12 hours. A full hour quicker than originally scheduled and just as well, since we left 30 mins late.

My two neighbors were both women. One a Kansas gal, heading back to Queenstown, which she now calls home, to set up her first aerial yoga studio. The other, a Venezuelan woman, recently a resident of Colombia was headed to Melbourne to visit her son before going on to Alice Springs (Australia) for a new job.

I spent the first 2 hours chatting, then gobbled down dinner with wine. I followed this with an impressive zero minutes of screen time and then affixing my head to the head rest with my ZZZ Band eye-patch/neck holder and falling fast asleep. That, my friends, took care of another 7 hours.

Waking to a busy airplane, I was just in time for breakfast and the typical "getting ready to land" type situation. Lots of announcements, the handing out of arrival cards, seat backs coming vertical, tray tables being stowed and rubbish being collected.

And just like that, the landing gear was coming down, the plane was skimming over the bay and we were kissing the tarmac at Auckland Airport... at 5 am. 5 AM!!

The air was damp, the ground was green, birds sang and the sun was peaking between patchy clouds. I grew up here. The feelings were of familiarity, comforting but a little weird actually.

I cleared passport control (automated) and then customs. Yep, there is always "something" to declare I guess and today, I was honest about my recent expeditions into Colorado open space wearing these hiking boots and sticking into the Colorado ground, the hiking poles I had in my bag. Nobody cared. I was then on my way to the domestic terminal... 900m walk if you don't opt for the shuttle (and I did choose the walk).

Arriving around 6 am at the domestic terminal, I tried my darnedest to see if an earlier flight to New Plymouth was in my destiny. It wasn't. But then, it hardly ever is when you buy the cheap flights, eh?!

You may have pegged me for being a woman who can turn a blind eye to a stand of donuts, but this morning, I had the unfortunate pleasure of being stationed directly outside of a Dunkin Donuts... for 4 hours!!!!! I lasted 3, then it was a Boston Creme and a hot chocolate - down the hatch!

At 10 am, I noticed the departure board was listing my New Plymouth flight as "departed".  There was a short panic, followed by a chat with AirNZ staff who called that a "glitch" and I lined up for boarding.

11:05 am (local time) - departure from Auckland, flying south along the west coast to New Plymouth.

Turning left base.

On final approach with landing gear down...

11:45 am - Touch down! Dallice was back in New Plymouth - after 13 years.
And the whole family was there meet me.  :-)

28 hours in transit, yes indeed!

Peru Day 14: Final day in Peru

Apparently we had sufficiently recovered from the "food tour day" of 2 days ago, because our checklist of stuff left to do in Lima was... mainly eating food!

Teresa had beautifully compiled a list of foods that we had not tried yet, but that had been recommended. While I was ticky-tackying away with blog posts at night, she was doing homework that benefited both of us. Each morning, I was lucky enough to wake up to a working plan - things she thought we'd enjoy together, places to visit, tastes to experience, pictures to take. How did I get so lucky?

We packed in the morning, carefully assessing (guessing) how much space we had, how much weight we could still get away with in our checked bags and how many US$ and Peruvian Soles we had left. I should be a little embarrassed that our plan involved intentionally leaving Peru at midnight tonight with no money left to spend. - but I have no such shame or regret! :-)

We Uber'd back over to Barranco. This district with it's art, color, history and architecture had been a favorite. Today, there was a local handicraft market going on too. First stop, breakfast a the cafe that Lucas introduced us to. Breakfast was to include lucuma milkshake and we were fairly excited about that. (Like... little kids, excited!)

We then wandered Barranco and hit the markets just as they opened. 

My intention was honestly to buy gifts for others. But as is often the case, I find so many more me-to-me gifts lurking amongst the treasures of every market!

Today I took a fancy to one stall in particular. The artist was Leonardo. A Colombian native who had found his way to Lima, via Mexico City. His work was not just beautiful, but it was unique. We both bought earrings here and I picked up a cute set of wooden cats to commemorate my time in Lima too.

We also met the most awesome little old lady. Olga was her name. She was hand-making what I can only describe as patchwork traditional Peruvian scenes, with a 3D twist. Olga became the proud bearer of pretty much all the US$ I had left and I become the delighted new owner to a work of art that I just adore. It features alpaca, vultures, cows, potatoes and corn, prickly pear cacti, mountains and even the red roofed buildings that I'll remember from Cusco forever. The little agricultural workers have clothes, baskets and even hair that is all intricately put together!

On my particular bucket list of food, was Alfajores - sandwich cookies filled with dolce de leche. We found them in a small bakery and as tempting as it was to eat them, had them boxed to go. After all, there were picarones in our immediate future and these sweet potato/squash doughnut type things are best eaten immediately, while swimming in a sticky molasses/honey-like (chancaca) type syrup.

Mmmm.... Picarones.

One plate of these will never be enough but it was Alex to the rescue again...  He sent us the link to a recipe! Oh, this could be dangerous.  Picarones Recipe

By mid afternoon it was time to take a break at home again. An hour or so to relax, drink tea, eat those alfajores and plan stage two of what is now known as our Lima Food Crawl.

We moved from restaurant to restaurant, ferreting out individual dishes that were still on the "must try" list and sharing them. While we could never bring ourselves to eat guinea pig (cuy) we did observe another couple picking bones clean at a table next to us. That was enough for me!

Stuffed!
With just enough energy left to hit the silver and textile markets one more time, we set about walking off some of the incredible amount of food we had put away. Yes, this time I DID find gifts for other people. :-)

So here is where we were at...
A pocket full of Sole coins left and about US $11 in my wallet that I would use for the bus back to Boulder tomorrow afternoon.

The cats became the recipients of most of the coins and their park, the site of our final goodbye to Lima. The smart women we are, we left just S/2 (about $.60) in my wallet in case we had cause to use a "pay bathroom" @ S/1 each.

Then it was time to pack once more and load up our Uber at 9:15pm for start of our homeward bound journey.

Goodbye Lima

Lima to Houston @ 12:30am.  Houston to Denver @ 12:40pm. LONG journey... but actually happy to be going home.

We're coming home!!!