There and Back Again

In what was the longest Tuesday of my life (literally and figuratively), we made it home at about 1 a.m. this morning. The good news was that every single flight we had was on time. The bad news is we now have to adjust to this new time. But as Beerman said yesterday (was that really only yesterday?) as we started the long slog back home - Not a soul is going to feel sorry for us. And that's okay, because we had a pretty nice time of it the past 16 days.

I will go back and document the bits of it. Because while it may be tedious for you, dear reader, I want to record everything while it's still fresh. But today, I give you the Gold-Silver-Bronze of my version of our trip. Because while the entire trip was a pretty fantastic adventure, some were more fantastical than others. So here goes...

BRONZE
New Zealand wine country was something I'd talked about getting to for at least 15 years now. And it did not disappoint. It was completely beautiful, the people in this area were lovely, and even the sheep were serene. We had lots of laughs and a really good time in this area.

SILVER
The snorkeling in Fiji was pretty tremendous. Not only was the water warm, seeing the fish and floating around was incredible. Now the raging sunburns that equatorial sun gave us regardless as to the amount of sunscreen we slathered on was not so nice, and we continue to molt to this day. .But the snorkeling was nothing short of amazing, and I'm incredibly grateful Beerman discovered the Gipsea as a way to see Fiji.

GOLD
The overall experience in Kaiakoura was amazing. Discovering the seal pups playing in the waterfall, C-man's excitement over seeing an albatross (on his checklist of to-dos), Taiki the sperm whale breaching, seeing hundreds of dolphins swimming and jumping, and even the campground we stayed at were all fantastic. It was an unforgettable highlight of it all.