On Friday, after H got home from school and I finished a full-day faculty retreat, I officially started my sabbatical and H started her three-week fall break. After saving dough for many years and carving out a chunk of time in our schedule, the three of us are embarking on a big trip to New Zealand. We started off with a pleasant ride to LAX - the car picked us up at 5.30pm, so we were prepared for 120 minutes of stop and go traffic, but instead we were door to door in 70 minutes. The travel gods blessed us the whole trip, with a breeze of a check-in, no wait at security, decent food in Bradley terminal, and the best premium economy seats I've ever sat in. The food on the overnight flight on Air New Zealand was not very good, but it was edible and we got surprisingly decent sleep. S and I each had about 7 hours, which is more than either of us expected. H didn't fare as well - she got stuffy and a sore throat and blew her nose most of the trip.
We landed in Auckland a little early, breezed through passport control and customs (the NZeta & NZTD apps let us do all our travel visa & declaration stuff before we even left LAX, which let us skip all the long lines), picked up our rental car, and were on our way out of Auckland just as the sunrise was kissing the edges of the clouds. S and I chanted 'drive on the left. drive on the left.' through all of the surface streets and roundabouts, but once we hit the highway, things got easy.
H continued to feel crummy, so we stopped at a drugstore to buy some pills to help her feel better. And a coffee! I had a flat white (verdict: too little coffee. I'll return to my cappuccino). We had about a 3 hour drive from Auckland to our first stay. The highways were fine, but once we got onto a little section of surface roads that were a little twisty, H (who also watching her iPad) got sick and barfed all over the backseat of the car. We stopped to get her cleaned up a bit, rub her back, etc. At 11am, we finally got to
Treetops Lodge, an over-the-top luxury stay that will easily be our fanciest stay of the trip. We booked it to have a place to rest and adjust to NZ and the time zone. It's about 25 minutes from Rotorua, up a series of steep gravel roads, but it's idyllic. Jo the manager met us, introduced us to the chef, and toured us through the area. The lodge only sleeps about 24 people total, and there's only one other couple staying here (it's not the high season yet). We unpacked in our small villa and settled in. H continued to feel crummy.
At 1.30 we met up with guide Jordan for an archery workshop with the other guests. Jordan had set up a series of targets in a field that we practiced on. H & S's girl scout archerying helped them with consistency and form. I was a hot mess at first.
Somebody got a bulls-eye!
After the target practice, S & H returned to the lodge (headache, exhaustion, and it was also pretty chilly), and I went with Jordan and the other guests into the woods to shoot at some foam animals they had set up in the woods. A turkey, a few deer, a boar, and a bear!
After archery, S, H, & I dipped in the hot tub before cleaning up for dinner at the lodge. We arrived in time for drinks and canapes. H and I played a round of chess before dinner.
Dinner was a lovely four-course affair. The ingredients weren't unusual, but everything was excellently prepared and presented family style. The most creative bites were the canapes, but it was all delicious. The potatoes were absolutely perfectly crispy and fluffy, and the pickled strawberries with the honey panna cotta had a lovely tart balance to the sweetness of the honey.
H, who hadn't sleep much on the plane and was feeling crummy, fell asleep at the table. What a trooper.
After dinner, we drove the golf cart back to the villa, brushed H's teeth and poured her into bed. S and I were soon to follow. I turned the lights off at 8pm
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