...and We're Off!

After a very brief snafu this morning, Ed and I are off for a whirlwind tour of, well, lots of places. 

Last night was spent packing, cleaning out the fridge, frantically slapping stamps on envelopes that had to go out before we left...in short, all the usual things one has to do before leaving town and responsibilities largely behind for just over a month. Mischa's trainer came to pick her up around midday and we tried not to be offended that Mischa happily leapt into her car with hardly a backward glance at us. I subbed, did one last tutoring session, went running, and ran errands. Ed dismantled and thoroughly cleaned his bike, which is necessary because the biological defense force in New Zealand will be strict about letting it in if there are trances of potentially contaminated US soil on it. 

After a (6+ hourlong) stopover in San Francisco, we'll fly the 13 hours to Auckland, New Zealand, then follow that with a much briefer hop (just under two hours) to Queenstown, whereupon we'll drive to Wanaka to meet our dear friends Eliot and Ethel for a two-week stay. Since the roads are oriented differently than we're used to, Eliot has provided the helpful mantra "death comes from the right."

After two weeks there, with jaunts to Christchurch, possibly some glaciers, and lovely hiking trials, we'll stop in Hong Kong for two nights to reunite with my friend Conor the Chef before heading to India for a further two weeks of adventure. 

Of course, a trip like this requires lots of precautions. Ed and I both had to get vaccines and boosters for things like hepatitis and typhoid fever (Ed had a nasty reaction to the latter injection) and collect prescriptions for malaria and stomach bugs. We are armed with insect repellant, bandaids, hand sanitizer, face masks to guard against pollution in the larger cities... I have never traveled with a more thoughtfully stocked first aid kit. We also had to be sure the cats were ready for their cat sitter's daily visits, so Ed picked up an abundance of food for them.

Ed will compete in a half-Ironman-distance race in New Zealand as well as some long rides with Eliot, so he invested in two new cases with which to transport his bike; the wheels go in one bag and the farm goes in the other and he is charged only normal baggage fees instead of an exorbitant price for a large, standard bike bag. In addition, we packed two large bags of clothes, etc. to see us through the trip, necessitating a large cab to the bus station, which never came. Luckily, we had given ourselves plenty of time and ended up driving ourselves. It's a bit of a hassle to have to leave a car in the garage for the month, but at $2 a day we figured we can swing it.

I write this from the Centurion Lounge in SFO. When one has a layover as long as ours, the annual fee for the card seems worth it for a comfy lounge like this, which features relative peace, plentiful armchairs and electrical outlets, a sumptuous buffet, and (really) an open bar. 

We are prepared with movies, books, crossword puzzles, and sleeping pills for the flight and can't wait to see our friends and explore a new continent!

(I apologize for weird formatting in any posts that come from overseas; Blogger and my iPad are not getting along particularly well. Perhaps relations will improve.)