The Adventure Begins

My story began last fall... but really... it begins in the late 60's.

A sailor in the US Navy was involved in Operation Deep Freeze, down in Antartica. He spent a lot of time in the harbor city of Dunedin, New Zealand. During this time he fell in love with a New Zealander, and upon his discharge from the Navy, returned to New Zealand, married her, and whisked her away to the United States, to live in the middle of the Illinois cornfields.

This was December of 1968. And these are my parents.

I was born in August of 1971, and when I was about 19 months old my mom took me to New Zealand, while I was still young enough to fly free. At least, so I'm told - and have seen the photos to back the story up. She could have taken me to the moon for all I remember of the adventure. Mom has a sister - my aunt. Which gives me an aunt and uncle on the north island of New Zealand who have three children - all older than me. I'm sure their toddler memories of their visiting Yankee cousin are as vivid as mine are of them.

Mom returned to New Zealand my senior year in High School for her neice's wedding. Since I told you I was born in '71, y'all can figure out this was 1989 - and if you keep doing the math you've figured out I'm now 35.

I was married in December of 1993, the week of my parents' 25th wedding anniversary. In what may be the most romantic thing I've ever heard of in my entire life, my dad surprised my mom by flying her sister in for the wedding. It was her first visit to the U.S. - and the first time she'd met my two younger brothers.

Now I have a ten year old daughter, and it's always been my intention that when she's old enough - perhaps for a high school graduation - my mom, me, and Delaynie will go to New Zealand.

That could be the end of the story, at least until 2015. Until the events of last fall began unfolding.

My dad found himself with business in Australia. Which of course, is a hop, skip & a bungee jump away from New Zealand. His company was installing sawmill equipment in Tasmania, and he needed to do a site survey and deal with some of the other business issues before shipping a mill to the other side of the world. So, for the first time in 13 years, mom was going to get to see her sister.

It was just prior to their trip, probably early September, that the plan started forming in my brain. A scary plan, that I was afraid to even speak out loud because it seemed so wild and crazy - not to mention incredibly selfish. I confided only in my friend Monica, who whole heartedly encouraged my insanity.

So I began plotting. Asking a lot of questions about their upcoming trips down under. And stashing money.

This went on for a couple of months, until finally late one night I had a heart to heart talk with my husband. Who couldn't believe I'd been plotting and stashing behind his back. But, being the amazing man that he is, he gave my crazy idea his support.

So now two people were in on my plan, which was still safe, because I hadn't gone so far that I couldn't get out of it. My parents went on their first adventure and brought back all kinds of stories and photos. Which only increased my adrenaline for plotting and planning. Their trip went well, and they'd be returning sometime in early 2007 to install the equipment.

The next trip was going to be longer. While dad - and my youngest brother - were working in Oz, mom would get to visit friends and family throughout NZ. After the equipment was up and running, they'd join her and hang around for a few more days to make sure his customer didn't have any issues before they returned to the other side of the world.

In early December I let my friend Sandi in on my big secret. And together we went on a mission that was vital to being able to pull this thing off. A visit to the US Passport office. All the while, I continued to stash money.

My parents' wedding anniversary came and went in December and I didn't send a gift. Christmas morning we were all together in Illinois opening presents, and if my folks noticed they weren't getting anything from the Nashville gang, they didn't comment. And after all the presents were opened, we pulled out one last box, for my parents.

Inside was a "voucher" we'd created that was a round trip ticket on Air New Zealand. From Nashville.

Of the ten people in the room Christmas morning, eight of them were shocked, including my daughter, who was terribly put out that we didn't let her in on it. We pulled it off.

However, there were conditions. And considerations, and a few things that could have unraveled the whole scheme.

At this point, they had no idea exactly when they'd be going. I was at the mercy of the US government granting me a passport in time to go with them. And of course, being a business trip for dad, it had to revolve around the business schedule. Mom had a block of time in February she couldn't get off work. I had a block of time in late Feb / early March that I couldn't get off work. An entire sawmill had to be built, and then shipped to the other side of the globe.

Not to mention arrangements had to be made for my fourth grader, who has several major school projects due throughout the spring, and my husband, who works crazy hours that don't co-incide with taking a child to and from school every day.

At this point, no one outside of my family knew I was hoping to go. I was too afraid to tell anyone, because I was afraid to jinx it. My passport arrived in record time.

It wasn't long before we realized it wasn't going to be February. Mom was cleared. Then it looked like it would be mid March. For a while it looked like it would turn out that we could be gone while Delaynie was on spring break. Perfect!

Not so easy. Before you can buy plane tickets to install equipment, you have to make sure the equipment, which is going around the world via a boat, actually gets there when you think it's going to. And clears through the customs regulations. And the customer has to arrange his business schedule for the installation.

All the while I'm pricing airline tickets and watching specials come and go, prices go up and down. Still stashing money into my special savings account. Sandi hooked me up with someone she knew going to NZ, who generously shared her stories and photos and words of wisdom with me. I was afraid to commit to things at school and church, because I had no idea when I might be leaving the country. I got in touch with my friend Carey, who answered a bunch of my questions about her native New Zealand.

Spring break came and went. Which was a blessing because I wound up being terribly ill during this time. The equipment shipped, and the timeline was adjusted.

And adjusted.

And adjusted again.

I finally told a couple of my co-workers I was going to be gone for a couple of weeks. At some point. Maybe. No idea when. Our timeline was inching closer and closer to another big event in early May I couldn't be gone for.

The equipment arrived, and the timeline was adjusted yet again, as we awaited word from a customer 13 time zones away. My relatives and friends of my mom's throughout New Zealand are all on standby.

And today.... after 6 months of plotting, planning, stashing, and praying...

I bought a plane ticket.