Goodbye, New Zealand

Breakfast Fast

We were up and checked-out by 9 so that we could get breakfast before the SuperShuttle came to pick us up at 10. I was so paranoid about being late that we decided what to eat when we were looking at the menu outside. As the hostess seated us, we told her our orders and everything went so smoothly and efficiently that we were ready to go at 9:30.

French toast with grilled banana, bacon, and maple syrup. Mince on toast, simmered with tomato, herbs, poached egg, and spinach. Cappuccino. Not pictured: A perfect Bloody Mary.

So we took a little walk to Heritage Landing, at the end of Silo Marina. Mike was certain we'd be back with plenty of time. Well, we got back to the hotel at exactly 10 and hopped on the shuttle that was waiting. The shuttle picked up a few others and we were at the airport just after 11. If we had called a non-share service, we would have saved 40 minutes, but we were early for checking-in anyhow.

Motorcycle meetup

Art

Cement silos

Not our plane, but that would have been awesome!

Flying Home

Checking-in was easy and instead of making us repack (because Mike's bag was bit overweight), they let us use the sum weight (since mine was a bit underweight). That's what makes sense. What doesn't make sense is when they make you repack the same things in a different way. The weight going onto the plane is the same!

Totara Park

Kawakawa Bay

The flight was mostly fine. There was a lot of turbulence and Mike's choices for both dinner and breakfast were gone by the time the trolley got to us. Besides that, it was very ordinary. We got back to the Bay Area in time to see some of the sunrise colors starting to creep into the sky.

Alviso

Toward Cat's house

San Mateo Bridge

Unpacking

The cats seemed happy to see us. Matilda seemed happy to see us. Havoc was fine. Mike did a bunch of yard-work, we grabbed takeout from Chipotle and ran a few errands. In the evening, we got to check-in with the Dodds in AZ and before we knew it it was time for dinner.

Dinner - Full Circle

We met with Cherry and Eddie for dinner and tried to go to a Japanese place, but it's closed on Sundays, so we went across the street to Redwood Grill, just as we had before they took us to the airport 3 weeks ago.

A nice symmetrical way to wind up the trip. It might look like nothing's changed, but it's been three weeks and we've been there and back again.