So, how do you say good-bye the Kiwi way, anyway?

I'll be driven out to Auckland to the airport in 30 minutes or so. I got up early this morning because I thought I still had a lot of packing to do, but I didn't so now I'm just enjoying my last bit of toast. As mentioned earlier, we're stopping off in Auckland to pick up those penguin waffle makers before going to the airport. We're picking them up from the queenb warehouse but the site didn't have the product's weight and measurements (and I only realized that too late to ask the woman I'd been in correspondence with) so I don't know how big/small they'll be and if they will/won't fit in my suitcase. So, I'm a bit nervous about that. Well, that and if all of the waffle makers get crushed to bits in my suitcase despite my best attempts to surround them with soft items for protection. Worst comes to worst, I'll have to leave them with my NZ hosts to ship to the US and pay them back for the shipping costs but I hope it won't have to come to that because it's really expensive to ship. Since I didn't have the dimensions of the boxes, it was hard to get an accurate estimate (plus, I had to put in the estimated measurements in mm) but my shot-in-the-dark estimates were a bit pricey since it would be for each item and that was just the economy shipping (10-25 days). We shall see, folks.

Last night we went out to dinner at a friend of my hosts' and on the way back I tried as hard as I could to savor a look at the night sky. It was pitch black outside and with the view of the sky being so open and unobstructed, it was perfect to see all those stars. There were big ones, small ones, twinkling ones (and I'm not sure I've ever seen a twinkling star!) and some sort of streak in the sky. Okay, maybe it was a strange cloud; I'm no astronomy expert, but who knows when I'll get to see so many stars and a sky like that?!

I'm a little less sick now (I mentioned I had a cold a couple days ago, right?) since I now only have the remains of a lingering cough but I'm not excited about flying like that. The recycled plane air full of germs, the dryness of the air that could make me cough like crazy, being in such close proximity to a whole bunch of people- ugh! Plus, I hope my fellow passengers won't be annoyed by my incessant coughing.

Later I'll try to post pictures of New Zealand. It seems to be a fitting way to conclude the New Zealand segment of my trip. My hosts kept asking me if I'd consider coming back to New Zealand and I definitely would. I'll get back to that thought later, though- I think we need to leave soon and I still need to finish my toast...