Over and Out

Thanks to all of you who have read this blog over the last couple of years. Your readership encouraged me to go the extra mile - in many cases literally. I'm now writing a new blog for the time I'm back home in America before heading off to India. You can read "My Intermittent America" here. Again, many thanks, and stay in touch.

Farewell, Welly; it's been a blast



Wellington showed what it can do on a glorious final weekend.

 It's been such a crazy-busy week that I did not have time to contemplate that this was it: two years in New Zealand over. Done and dusted. Time to move on. The sadness is more than compensated by the thrill of seeing my family again. But, as I sat listening to the Kiwi rain coming down last night and looked out at the sodden streets and twinkling lights of our neighborhood, it began to sink in.

There will be more time in the coming days to try to assess what our time in New Zealand has meant. Sitting in Sydney on a glorious winter's day, New Zealand already seems long ago and far away. There is so much I will miss about the gentle Kiwis: their kindness and dry wit, their wooly, black-clad unpretentiousness - but most of all their common sense and decency. These are folks who try to do the right thing by others. There were two examples of that at the airport this morning - at 4 a.m. no less. A nudge-nudge, wink-wink at my overweight bag and a taxi driver who returned to the airport to deliver the phone a friend of mine had left in the back seat.

The world is not at war with itself in New Zealand. Sure, there are the daily brouhahas and regular political eruptions. Still, the bottom line is that most Kiwis have each other's backs and that of those who share their soil.

But, as I've said, there will be plenty of time for such musings. For now I'm just trying to navigate the massive journey homewards.

A brief pause in Sydney

I felt almost guilty sneaking out of New Zealand before the crack of dawn. It was a dark, dreary way to say goodbye to a place that has stolen my heart. But it also seemed appropriate. It would have been harder to leave in the daylight, when Welly could sing her siren song.

I snuck out of the airport and made a mad dash into Sydney, an old friend from long ago. It was a glorious day that made the parting from New Zealand a little easier - and hinted at the Southern fall soon to greet me back home.

Sydney Harbor is still gorgeous and, after my last trip back exorcised a lot of ghosts, it was good to see the city through new, non-nostalgic eyes again.

The view from Circular Quay station.

Then it was time to get back on the train at Circular Quay. It's a station I used a lot when I lived in Sydney. I saw the hotel where I had drinks with the guys from ZZ Top when they were in town. And the flat ... Oh, wait. Didn't I just say I was done with nostalgia?

Anyway, onwards and upwards and back to the states. I've been gone for almost two years and I need to get re-Yankified. It's a prospect I relish. In addition to family, I've missed a lot about the states: wide open highways, barbecue, my friends, fishing with my friends, Coors Light, Jon Stewart, the paper version of the New York Times, college football, politics (absolutely kidding), affordable books - affordable everything, actually. None of these seem like problems that will be too difficult to fix.

For those of you who care, I will wrap up this blog over the next couple of days. Thanks to all of you for reading and commenting and contributing ideas and conage. I will, of course, begin another. 

All that remains is to say "Goodbye, New Zealand." I will miss the wonderful people, the majestic scenery and the sense of comfort and well-being you afforded. I never did get to see the Orcas in Wellington harbor. And that's a regret  strong enough that it might just bring me back.