Things You Definitely DON'T Find in Nashville

Lights that only work with a room key

Pasta Happy Meals

Two options for flushing

"Tyre" Shops

Cute post office boxes

"Takeaway" restaurants

Cats roaming through the high schools

Mint Twix bars

Girl Guide Cookies

Pea, Pie, & Pud (which WAS in Nashville last night!)

Passion fruit

Women's Restroom Sign in Maori

Kiwi Fruit Tourist Attractions

Rock Graffiti

Kiwi Blue Power Ade

Bungy Jumping off country bridges

And these two are my favorites:

Clothing made from possum. Seriously... this was EVERYWHERE. And VERY expensive. I could make a fortune selling someone roadkill in my neighborhood.

Unrefrigerated eggs. They just don't refrigerate 'em.

These Looked Familiar

Kodak Moment

Favorite Photo Spot:

Bridge Over the Clutha River - Alexandra, South Island

Playing Favorites

Favorite Person I Met in NZ:

With absolutely no offense to anyone else,

my 78 year old great-aunt was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Favorite Place I Went:

First Church of Otago - Dunedin, New Zealand

We even found my parents' marriage record in their archives!

Mountains - Central Otago

By Request for Lynette :-)

Here's Your Sign

(Not so) Wild Life

Deer - Central Otago

Seagulls - Papamoa

Ducks - Dunedin Botanical Gardens

Sheep - Dunedin

Kangaroo - Auckland Zoo ;-)

Bird I can't Remember It's Name - Queenstown

Tuatara - Auckland Zoo

Cow - Central Otago

Now Taking Photo Requests

I've got over 1200 photos... plus a few zillion more that my mom took. I don't know where to start.

I've started sprinkling things in to my past blog entries, hope to get that finished tonight. But aside from that, what do you want to see??

Sneak Peek

Because it's nearly 4am and I am wide awake.

Re-Americanizing Myself

I slept in until noon today. But I'd been up for umpteen zillion hours before that, so I think I'm allowed. I also let my daughter skip school today. Don't tell.

So tonight, for the first time in 2 weeks I got behind the steering wheel, drove a car - on the right side of the road - dropped my daughter off at Girl Scouts, went to Taco Bell, and then shopped at Kroger. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I've also taught Delaynie how to say "Oh buggar! I about got skittled when I was down at the B-N-Zed!"

Things seemed to have gone along quite nicely without me. I came home to discover my husband installed FOUR new light fixtures for me - which I'd bought 2 months ago and we didn't ever seem to have the time to install. My cleaning lady took excellent care of the house, and it doesn't appear that Delaynie is flunking school. All is good. At least until I tackle the mountain of work awaiting me tomorrow.

I was met last night with a "Welcome Home" sign that Laynie had made and had her friends all sign, and a single white rose. I came home to discover (as if the light fixtures weren't enough!) a huge vase with more roses surrounded by caramel hershey's kisses. I'm one lucky lady!

I was hoping to get a few pictures up tonight, but something between my camera and my computer is corrupting pictures, so I'm afraid to try to do anything with my NZ photos. Although fortunately, all but the last dozen or so have already been loaded onto my brother's laptop, so at least there is a backup copy.

Back on American Soil!

Greetings once again from Los Angeles, where I just collided with Deanna Carter and her son in the airport.
This would be the plane that got me here, safe and sound.

Since last we talked, my little brother has bungy jumped off the Auckland Harbor Bridge. And I, who's deathly afraid of driving off a bridge and drowning, walked out to the bungy point in the middle of the bridge and watched him. They could have made a killing by selling valium along the way.

See the walkway under the bridge?

<---

Not fun.
Not fun at all.

I also had lunch in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower and took a last look at the city. Awesome views and I was able to pick out alot of places I'd been.

My Wednesday lasts 42 hours today. About 36 of it I will have been awake. Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!

I'm at LAX for the next several hours... cell phone is on if you're bored!