Passports securely in hand, we headed off on a 25-hour journey to Auckland, New Zealand.
Along the way, we missed a flight, but were booked through to San Fran on the next one. There are worse cities to get stuck in than Denver and SF, but we ended up making it in time to our Air New Zealand flight.
As we were boarding the Air NZ flight at SFO, we started talking to a couple behind us in line, just talking about why we were each headed to NZ and sharing potential South Island travel plans. They asked us where we were from, we said Ann Arbor, and the woman said she lived in AA for 25 years before moving to the Bay Area. No big deal. She asked us where we lived, Ashley said Kerrytown, and I said I live south of downtown on Ashley Street. Then she's like, "Oh, I used to live in that area. The first house I ever owned was right next to Washtenaw Dairy." "I OWN THAT HOUSE!!! I LIVE THERE RIGHT NOW" Unbelievable. We just happened to bump into the woman that used to own the exact same house.
Also, apparently that show "X Factor" is such a hit that they're starting an "X Factor New Zealand". We didn't realize it until yesterday, but the two weirdos we were ogling in customs are definitely two of the judges. She, a former singer in the hit 90s British girl group, "All Saints" (or so Ashley tells me and was ever so kind to share her a cappella renditions of their hit(s)), didn't mind spending an 13-hour overnight flight in a see-through mesh shirt, while he had tiny man pajama pants.
Weather's been awesome, here are some photos of our neighborhood and the surrounding parks...
Marketing is slightly different over here.
Go Blue.
