We have both safely arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. Brittany has been waiting at the exit of customs for international flights for a couple of hours, knowing, try as hard as I may, that I would not be able to figure out how to change my phone over to contact her. Once I found Brittany, I was supposed to procure some local currency. Two separate ATM’s and three tries later, we were still without local dollars.

We decided to move to our next itinerary item, a rental car. Yes, a car. The thought of my driving strikes fear in most people, including myself. My driving skills are challenged, to say the least. It gets better – add in the wrong side of the road, steering wheel reversed, winter conditions, and a stick shift. All this was playing through my mind as I settle into the rental office. I have a seat at the desk and wait for the kid to bring back the paper work to sign. He announced that he had good news for us as he strode back into the room. They had a car for us. Uh, yeah. We rented one from you. Tell me something I do not know? Well, my rental contract started a day later. I don’t know how I missed that, but our schedule was a day off upon arrival. He said no worries, all was well. This bit of good luck evens out the day late dollar short luck I had before I left. When I checked my passport upon packing, it was expired. Thank heavens for expediting services and exponential surcharges for that service. After that faux-pas, I knew I could manage a day early with my eyes closed. Don’t worry, just a figure of speech. My eyes were wide open. A little dilated possibly after my initial scan of how to get out of the parking lot unscathed. I expected us to be handed the keys and to be on our way rather quickly since we were the only ones in the office. Not so fast says my first Kiwi friend. We needed to go over all the rules, and extra rules Brittany believed he developed on the fly just for me. Could it have something to do with my delusional ramblings after twenty hours of traveling? Some would say yes, my husband would say no, that’s normal. I didn’t know. All that he suggested we purchase including car seats, I guess I will find out in the end if they were necessary. The only item I declined was the additional insurance, which he went over a number of times with me. Not sure why the extra enforcement was necessary. Could it have been the lack of sleep I mentioned, my fear of driving in a foreign country, or the cross-eyed look I gave him with twitching eyes because the stress and jet lag were catching up with me? I’m sure he has seen far worse, at least I hope so.

He asked us to meet him in the garage where he would pull our car out of the rain and go over final instructions. After one pass around the car, I noted that he was marking everything on his check paper, to the point my car looked like a wrap-around advertisement written in Chinese. On the second go-around, I joined in, even adding the debris splatters from the rain to be extra cautious. I noticed the only commonality between my car at home and this one was the color red, not a good start.

We were finally allowed to load the car up and begin. It was still dark out as I looked out the garage door with storm clouds covering the sky and bursting at the seams. I turned the car lights on, or so I thought. Twelve hours later when I needed them again, I realized that I had never turned them on in the first place. I revved the gas, let out the clutch and we hopped thru the parking lot full of cars into the pouring rain. I wanted to look thru my rearview mirror to see our Kiwi friend’s expressions, but I didn’t dare peel my eyes from the obstacles in front of me and I hadn’t found the rearview wipers anyway. In fact, I found the front wipers before anything else. I tried to put my blinker on as I exited left out of the garage only to turn my front wipers on a dry windshield right next to our Kiwi friend. Everything is opposite. I started thinking about all the fines and fees the lad extensively detailed to me as I reach with my right hand for the phantom stick shift that should have been where my door handle was. I was wondering if all the potential fees were something he just made up or decided the probability to make a little extra cash on the side was very high with me.

No car lights, still predawn dark, and in a down pour similar to raining cats and dogs, I managed to get us a 100 yards to the McDonald’s parking lot, pull into a parking spot, and breathe, since I held my breathe the minute we left the rental garage. We stopped at McDonalds to use the only free WIFI around in order to plan what we were going to do with this extra day.

I had a mind to just stay in the parking lot for two weeks and keep circling the drive-thru for meals, but I am trying to talk myself into sticking with the original travel plan. Brittany remains calm, as always. We come up with a game plan and 45 minutes later, sun breaking thru the clouds, we are on the road, going the right way, on the right/wrong side of the road. Brittany has been a huge help with driving as she has been in Tonga the past month and is used to the change.

New Zealand is a very rural county with agriculture being its top product. The total population of New Zealand is only 4.4 million people. ¾ of the population lives in the north island, which has 1/3 of the land mass and the remaining ¼ of the population live in the southern island, in the remaining 2/3 of the land mass. This is why all roads outside of the few major cities are two lane highways splitting shared bridges. On our four hour drive north on paved and unpaved highways (no beach driving since that was against the rules), as far as the eye can see, are rolling hills, mountains, and fields splashed with shades of green that can only be replicated in one’s mind due to their uniqueness. Photos do not do them justice. Hillsides and valleys dotted with sheep, cows, and goats framed our entire drive. A couple of sheep herds stood out in their coats of neon colors. Brittany said that farmers here paint their sheep to differentiate the herds from their neighbors. After 20 hours of traveling, I wasn’t sure if I was seeing pink sheep or pink elephants. Sleep deprived, I was just glad they were real for whatever reason.

A couple hours later we arrived in Waipoua State Forest where the Kauri trees once forested the entire region. We stop, dress warmer, and head out on our hikes. Brittany adds an extra layer. Me? I add three more to my already three layers I traveled in. Brittany keeps warning me we are at the warmest part of our trip. I keep telling her baby steps, baby steps. And as long as I can still feel blood going to my extremities, then I am fine. Learned the hard way that not feeling them is worse than being cold. Car locked, umbrella in hand, and we are off.