Home!

After two weeks of traveling, we were very, very happy to get back to Waiheke. It was a somewhat adventurous drive, with a car spinning out in front of us, and Mike almost running into a passing police car, but we made it home safe and sound.

Some little tidbits about traveling in New Zealand:

1) Hotels have this thing about milk. Upon checking in, you are faced with a choice of skim or whole milk, and are given a container (sometimes little, sometimes a liter).I am not sure what the milk is for, but no check-in is complete without a transfer of milk.

2) New Zealand highways are not really highways. Highway 1 is the main street of many towns along the way. It is kinda like I imagine the US in pre-interstate days.

3) There is a group that vets motels, and it is clear that they have a checklist. If you want a four-star rating, you must provide "spa baths" (no matter how small), breakfast served to the room (even if it is "unavailable" on the particular days we were there), kitchens, and so on. There was a similarity to the rooms we stayed in that was uncanny. On the plus side, we generally stayed in "motels" which means kitchen facilities, separate bedrooms, and so on. At the best, these are nice apartments. At the worst, they are normal sized rooms, cut into smaller pieces.

4) New Zealand really does playgrounds well. Or maybe we are just noticing them for the first time!