#rndtheworldn44 - Days 1-4 - New Zealand

Wow, what a trip!  Around the World in 44 Days!  It all started with a plan to visit Matt, Weina and William in Myanmar over the holidays.  Then our niece Chelsea announced plans to get married in New Zealand on November 25, and we HAD to join that celebration.  Then what to do between the wedding and Burma?  And it turned out that the cheapest airfare was an around-the-world ticket that required us to keep flying west after Myanmar.  Where should we connect?  Aha...Paris!  And we'd be there just in time for New Year's!  So the plan was set.

We packed up and stored the RV and Jeep, and found Maria, a warm and friendly woman to care for the cats.  Then, on November 20, 2017, we flew out of Houston, headed to New Zealand.

We lost a day flying across the International Date Line.  We still don't know which day it was, but in any event, we landed in Auckland on Wednesday, November 22. Our first night in New Zealand, we stayed in Devonport, a beautiful little port town on the North Shore across from Auckland.  Around dinner time, we got a show of sailboats headed out to view the sunset.

Thursday morning, we took the ferry to Waiheke Island to pick up our rental car and check into our AirBnB cottage.  The little house was beautiful, with a striking view of Huruhi Bay from our back yard:

Thursday, November 23 was Thanksgiving, and my sister Lizzy and her husband Kenny planned a big Thanksgiving dinner for friends and family at the Bays Club in Brown's Bay, where they live.  It was a rollicking, happy evening, and we were so busy celebrating and hugging people that we forgot to take any photos.  After dinner, Suzanne, one of the family, gave us a ride to downtown Auckland where we caught a ferry back to Waiheke Island.  In the process, David left his passport at the ticket counter.  Only after the ferry left the dock did he realize his passport was missing.  However, a timely call to the Fuller's Ferry people rescued the passport, which we picked up the next morning on a previously-unscheduled round trip ferry ride back from Waiheke Island.

Katie and her cousin Megan, who stayed with us, arrived on Friday.  Once they were settled, we all took advantage of some kayaks stored in the garage and headed down to the beach for some sun, swim and paddling.  We took the first turn, and recorded the event at our turn out past the point between Huruhi Bay and Takirau Bay:

Megan and Katie took their turn next and returned looking fit and victorious:

Friday afternoon was time for the wedding rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner hosted by Chelsea's fiance Troy's parents, at a cute little restaurant in the village of Oneroa on Waiheke Island.  We dove in eagerly and enjoyed all the food, drink and conviviality:

This was the occasion for Katie and Chelsea to spend a little time after having not seen each other for a couple years when Chelsea was living in New York City and Katie was in New Haven:

We fell into bed Friday evening, tired from an eventful day.  On Saturday, the wedding day, we took it a little slower getting started, but did take the opportunity to have a birthday lunch for Kathy in nearby Surfdale.  Kathy didn't suspect that David had brought along the celebration accoutrements before we sprang them on her!

But we get a little ahead of ourselves.  We forgot to mention that our sunset the night before was gorgeous, and we recalled the saying, "Red Sky at Night, Wedding's Delight," so we knew it boded well for the next day's wedding celebration.