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Check in at NAIA (Terminal 1, eww, you think they’d clean the x-ray machines once every ten years; you haven’t even left the airport and your luggage is already grimy) three hours before the flight, then wait. A slight delay, then an hour and a half from Manila to Hong Kong; worried about missing the connecting flight, but Marlu’s friend Pearl took charge and moved us to business class so we’d get out first. (By the way, did you know that there’s now an extra charge if you want the bulkhead/exit row seats?!?) Then ten hours from HK to Auckland. Total: 15 hours.

From Auckland airport it’s a three-hour drive to Tauranga. We make two pit stops, first at a former mine whose name I didn’t take note of because my head was splitting (Three different headaches merged into one monster pain, plus a fourth psychosomatic headache from being unable to boil myself immediately upon landing). Couldn’t really look from the pain, so I shot at random.

A second pit stop for snacks at a biker bar and beer garden with vintage motorcycles. I asked about public transportation: there’s none. There’s a train system across NZ, but it’s for transporting sheep and cattle.

I haven’t seen any sheep yet. We may have run over a possum. “No, I didn’t run over a possum, I was making sure it was already dead,” our driver said. Aha! Kiwi humor.