Day #18, leisurely morning/traveling home

Another sparkling day in NZ!! I love it here, there is so much more I want to explore and see and do...but I'm also homesick. I miss my man, my dogs, my family and my home, and so I'm ready to leave and someday I will definitely return to hit up the southern portions of the South Island that I missed.

I went into town and ordered a flat white to go and drove towards the ocean. Windows open, surfer music on the radio (techno beats, low base grooves, very chill...a gal could get used to this), I drove towards Whale Bay and Manu Bay to check out the surfing sitch.

What beautiful views of vast blue! And don't kid yourself, those waves are way higher than your head. A few surfers were out at the low-tide, catching waves and riding them for a lot longer than I do! I sat in the warm sun, sipping my flat white and enjoying the moment, all relaxed and happy. The homes that are tucked into the hills and near the beaches are relatively small but pricey for NZ home prices (maybe around NZ$700,000), but all quite funky and no two are the same. A nice change from all the U.S. homes that look identical.

I also wanted to check out Whaingaroa which is right next door to these surf spots. At the top of the hill they had the Raglan Surf Life Saving Club--a commonplace building in the surf towns here due to extreme waves and rip currents.

Overlooking the bay, I checked out this little monument, I assume an homage to the Maori culture and heritage.

Four stone statues were situated at points opposite each other, a circle of stone pavers connecting them and all leading to a tile mosaic in the center depicting a star compass, the cardinal signs. The statue for East had interesting shell eyes; East represents the sky father, rising sun, Tawhiri wind god, life, growth, geneology and flight.

North represents the fire goddess, music, the heart, passion, soul, and heat:


South pays respect to Tane Mahuta (the tall kauri tree Wendy and I had visited at the beginning of our trip), Mother Earth (yay!!!), nurture, weaving and cold weather (remember, we're in the southern hemisphere, so south is cold!):

And West represents the setting sun, surf, marine life, all things water (also note the cool tile mosaic that ties this all together):

*sigh* My time here was coming to a close. I drove back to Auckland (a rather unscenic drive on actual highways) and returned the campervan. They were nice enough to completely reimburse me for the tire I had purchased (YAY!!!) so I was definitely a happy camper about that. Their shuttle took me over to the airport with plenty of time to spare--the nicest airport I've ever been inside, plenty of great shopping opportunities! My flights were teeeerrrrrrriiiibbbblllleee....I arrived at Boston, honestly delirious from two days of sleepless travel, and Jeff arrived with a huge smile!! I was so happy to hug my honey and be back home, even if it is uglier than in NZ...ahh, Zoe was so excited that she did the full-body wag for 20 minutes upon my arrival. Shelby was interested for a minute and then realized that I would be staying.

I am so excited to one day go back and explore more of that amazing country, everything is breathtaking and beautiful and so laid-back! Wendy was a super travel partner and we had a blast together. Where will our ladies' trip take us next year? :-)