181220041031 Auckland, NZ

Because rolling out and baking a couple hundred biscuits seems like way too much of an effort first thing in the morning, I decided to finally put down in text the epic journey from Toronto. Because I am finally back in the Wong homestead in Auckland, huzzah! Home feels a little strange still, but I think it's going to take awhile to settle in. At least the radio accents don't weird me out as much as they did last year.

My last day in Toronto was cold but nice. I met up with Jules for the first time since we met up in Sydney on my way over to Canada. We didn't really have long enough to catch up, but it was awesome to see her. After that I did some last minute shopping, finished organising my dinner and then ran into Michelle at the Eaton Centre. I braved the temptations of the new H&M (German super clothing chain that I haven't seen since Britain), but managed to get out with my credit card unscathed since it was easy to turn down all the winter fashions. Michelle, Helen, Darren and David were all at my "yet another going away" dinner, which was at a very nice multi-ethnicity Asian restaurant. Everyone got along pretty well for people who didn't know each other well or at all (as I would expect from my friends anyway!). They were all there for a common purpose - a last chance to bathe in the light of Me! Darren headed home after that, and the rest of us went in search of a pool table. We couldn't find one so we went back to the hostel and racked up a few games. The rest of the evening was whiled away with chalkless pool followed by a final visit to my friend Tim Horton's place. I ended up home around 2am and had to do my packing. Luckily it didn't go too too badly.

The actually journey home was fraught with delays and issues, which is not what you need on a 30+ hour "direct" trip. Candice was early to pick me up (yay, I had a ride to the airport), so I rushed around to finish up dishes and things before I cleared out. When we got to the airport, I found out that the terminal on my itinerary was wrong, and had to say goodbye to Candice and her grandma (thanks for the ride!) early to get on the shuttle. At the check-in desk they booked me on an earlier flight ("It's boarding right now, but you should make it") because my connection in Vancouver was too short. Made the flight, and the trip to Van wasn't so bad. Once there, there was a lot of confusion about baggage pickup, tax refunds (those bastards only accept receipts up to 60 days old, so I couldn't claim on my CD player or camera) and US customs (there's signs in the Vancouver and Toronto airports saying "Welcome to the USA" - how creepy!). I ended up having to go through American customs because I was stopping in Honolulu for an hour. It was my first time passing through the states since they brought in their new security mandate, so I had to give them my fingerprints and let them take a photo of me. So now they have me on file, which is so not cool. The flight from Vancouver to Sydney was about 18 hours, with the stop in Hawaii. There were delays all over the place and we arrived about an hour late, which made me really late for my connecting flight home. The only good thing about the trip was that I got to sit next to the bassist from 4lyn, a German rock band. Apparently they're pretty popular in Germany. Anyway, he was awesome company, and he even gave me a signed copy of their CD. I think that meeting him was probably the best part of my flight. Also comforting was the fact that he'd come from Hamburg that day, which is even further away than Toronto. After stressing out about making my connection, I realised I'd misread my boarding pass and I was boarding and not leaving at 8.30. Mental forehead wipe. Then I find out that that flight is cancelled anyway, so still had to wait a couple of hours. I called my mum and she already knew (how did I end up being the last to know?). The flight home was great though (Air NZ kicks Air Canada's arse around the world and back, by the way), except for another delay and then being told off by some random Chinese woman about using "her" overhead bin. So I arrived home late, got distracted by duty free shopping, passed through the speedy NZ & Australia line (hooray, finally I don't have to wait in the "everyone else wait here" line), and then patiently awaited my luggage. Patiently turned into impatiently, which turned into slightly concerned as it became apparent that my backpack wasn't coming. Then more waiting with people significantly more irate (what is wrong with people?) than me to tell the airline what was missing and where. Apparently it didn't get on the plane in Sydney, so I left them all my details and hoped that my stuff would make it safely home to me. My change of underwear, pajamas, coat, scarf, hat and gloves weren't going to get me far in NZ. I had to explain my Newfoundland Liberation Army shirt and the ferret shelter to the customs guy (who was very nice, I have to say, even though he thought I was actually a Newfie).

So my actual journey took over 36 hours, not including the dinner that my parents took me straight out to. Got to hang with my family, even though I was slightly irritable from the trip.

No jet lag! Very excited about that. I've been a bit low-profile so far, but I guess that will change. I have a lot of shopping and pre-christmas stuff to do, my family has given me the Christmas present shopping and dinner making responsibilities, which is a lot to grasp on such short notice. Don't really have much of a choice though ...

Off to bake those biscuits, as the heavens have decided to open and crash down on us right now ...