Wed and Thur, April 9 & 10, 2025

Wednesday brought another travel day (flight #7) from Sydney to Auckland.  I am SO GRATEFUL that I healed from most of my sickness before we left.  My ears and sinus have handled the flying, but the cough is lingering.

The Sydney Airport is basically a giant shopping mall with planes.  I’ve never seen such massive shopping anywhere!  And I made it all the way through unscathed.  Ivonne, not so much.  

The 3-hour flight was easy since we had the exit row!  I’m  rewatching WICKED, and I like it better than the first time.   We did have an issue getting off the plane; the jet bridge was broken.  We were towed to a new gate, and we worked our way through the immigration process.  So much of it is computerized now.  We met  our THIRD Gate1 guide (Jerrod) and checked into The Pullman Hotel, just in time for dinner.

We were ASLEEP by 9:45 and I slept over EIGHT hours!  Poor Ivonne had to deal with my snoring, but I sorely needed a solid night of sleep. 

Gratefully, Thursday morning was free time, and I took full advantage.  I lounged in bed and watched the news from all over the world talking about the surge in the markets (thank God).  Had a leisurely breakfast and shower and just basically pampered myself. 

I decided to take a walk and MAN!  This is a HILLY place! 

Our group walked down to the Ferry Terminal at noon and journeyed across the beautifully calm water to Waiheke Island. 

We were met by a very jolly bus driver, and we spent the afternoon visiting two wineries and the longest beach on the island.  The pictures explain it best ….

I’m quite content to be back in New Zealand.   If anything crazy happened and we were locked out of the States, I could happily live here. 

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