Packed

So Karen and I have packed up or sold our belongings and are sitting, with what we have left, in the Vancouver airport awaiting the first leg of our journey. Good to know: as we have a short layover in L.A., we weren't required to undergo retina scan and fingerprinting. Does anyone else find that process just a bit worrying?

Hello, this is Skynet calling. How are you feeling today?

For those who don't know our travel plans, we're doing a bit of the milk run. Today we fly Vancouver --> L.A., where we'll have almost 6 whole hours to see the sights and absorb the culture of LAX airport. I can't wait to hunt for postcards.

From there we fly L.A. --> Cook Islands, for 6 days of 30°C weather, which after the blizzards in Vancouver (hey, it snowed a fair bit yeah?) will be a welcome change. We've even been visiting the tanning beds to prep ourselves, and may I recommend that you experience these wondrous places at least once in your life?

Ok, so that side-trip out of the way, we head to Auckland for January 12. The plan at this point is to load our belongings (being sure to not forget the media-laden laptops or underwear) into the 2nd hand car we buy and drive helter-skelter around the islands for a few weeks. The end destination being Christchurch, a city of about 300,000 inhabitants and the largest urban area of the South Island.

I may not have mentioned that the helter-skelter part does, perhaps, involve visiting one or two wine-producing regions. Will try not to bore Karen to tears with yet another photo of vines, or any of our readers for that matter.

That's about all for now. Will write more when more's to be written.