Goodbye New Zealand; hello New York

Monday, December 15th
I didn't sleep well that night.  It could be a combination of sleeping till 1pm the day before and my anxieties of going home.  Alan was able to get me on the flight of the 15th to return to New York.  I'm very excited to go home and see my family and friends.  But before I get to see people I still had a long journey to travel.
We got up at 8am to get ready to check out the kiwi encounter before hitting up the road for our 3 + hours drive to Auckland, where Bernice and I will take off to the States.
The kiwi encounter was pretty neat.  It's a privately owned research center that breeds kiwi birds and released them in the wild after 6 months.  Kiwi birds are most susceptible to injuries and death when they are babies.  These birds are big and fluffy brown, looks like the kiwi fruit...or does the fruit looks like a kiwi bird...you know what I mean.  Kiwi birds are flightless birds with tiny baby wings, but really strong feet.  They're the only birds with nostrils on their beaks allowing them to sniff their food.  They also have incredible hearing, but horrible vision.  The size of a kiwi bird egg is the same size and weight as an ostrich egg.  This means the egg alone takes up almost the mom's whole body during pregnancy.  That does not sound fun at all, maybe that's why they ditch out after they lay their eggs for the father to incubate it.  Oh kiwi birds are monogamous creatures and can lay up to 6 eggs a season (9 months in a year).  They're nocturnal creatures, so we saw them in a dimly lit room.  So cute!  We wanted to pet one, but because they are endangered it's not allowed.  Boo hoo.
After the quick visit, Nilesh started our drive to Auckland, and he gave us a few scares along the way, which included crazy roundabouts and switching lanes.  Driving on the wrong side of the road is definitely not easy.  We made a stop by a mcdonald's and kfc.  The girls had kfc again and the boys had mcd's.  I'm about done with fast food after that meal.  I felt so disgustingly grossed out it's not even funny.  I'm going to turn into a fried chicken soon.  Seriously I think I ate more fast food and junk food these last 3 weeks than I would in a normal year.  Sigh.
We got to Auckland 3-4 hours before our flight time.  It was sad to say our farewells since we had such a great time in New Zealand.  The good thing is our roads will probably cross again somewhere in the States.
At the airport we did some gift shopping and got some food.  Our flight was delayed an hour, which really sucked since I was concerned I might miss my connecting flight from lax to jfk.  When we were boarding I realized I lost my boarding pass.  I decided not to panic, but just asked the counter what to do.  No problem, I'll just print you another one.  As easy as that.  The movie selection was horrible.  I ended up watching hellboy 2, really bad, before sleeping.  I slept pretty well on the qantas flight to lax, but Bernice didn't sleep at all.  At least she had a bed to look forward to at home.
We landed late at lax and I had only 50mins post customs to get through security and to my gate.  So I only said a quick farewell to Bernice as I started stressing.  Whew, I made it there ok.  The flight was fairly easy, caught up on reading a ton of magazines.  To put an end to all my travel clothes, as I am so sick of wearing most of them, I spilled cranapple juice all over my jeans and white shirt.  How lovely.  Now I can just dump it in the trash.
I was so excited to go home.  My best buddy Louis was picking me up from the airport.  I was a bit anxious to see a familiar face when I landed.  I thought I saw him when I walked out to baggage claim, so I gave a quick wave and smile.  But then I realized I pinpointed the wrong person when Louis came from a different angle to give me a huge hug.  Maybe I should wear my glasses more often.
It was an indescribable joy to see my best buddy.  He welcomed me home with open arms.  As we waited for my backpack to come out, someone popped out from behind me.  It was Susan.  Aww!  How wonderful.  Wait there's more, Yi Law also popped up from the other side of baggage claim.  I have to say, I feel so blessed to have great friends who love me dearly.  Also, totally appreciate the numerous welcome back texts and phone calls.
It was a nice normal car ride home.  It's easy to fall back in to the routine of things chatting about normal life.  It's good to know I can slip right back into the world I left behind for 134 days, but those 134 days will never be forgotten.  Not only that it was a trip of a lifetime, but I documented it all in my numerous blog postings and pictures.  The memories will live on forever. Glad you were part of it.