I have dating issues

And by that I don’t mean I can’t find a guy who will go on a date with me – I’ve never tried so I don’t know if I have issues there yet. What I mean is date, as in what day of the month is it? Or for that matter, what month of the year is it? Personally, I’ve had no trouble with jetlag or time changes until we reached Australia. I think the problem was brought on by our last 4 nights in Auckland being very late. We returned on Wednesday, said goodbye to Gertrude the van, and went off to cousin Johnny’s for dinner. Dinner was awesome, and we didn’t get back until about 12AM. The next night we visited with dad’s old army buddy Fred, and his family. It reminded me of home because Fred’s kids are homeschooled, and they were playing with legos all over the floor. Sound familiar? Didn’t get back to the room until about 11:30PM that night.

Next day Dale and I went shopping with Uncle Jamie, while dad went to meet his old friends Poi and Phillip. Before splitting up we all went up to One Tree Hill, which is missing its lone tree because of some lunatic. Prior to going up, I couldn’t understand why that tree was the only one that would grow on the top of that hill, when plenty were growing not too far below the crest. When you feel the way the icy wind whips around the top in huge gusts, you understand. It’s way too cold for anything to want to grow there except grass! Once our shopping was completed, we went up Auckland’s Sky Tower. The view is breathtaking. Auckland has a lovely skyline, and to see it from above as daylight was fading to dark, was a real treat.

Saturday we didn’t do much of anything until 3PM, when we drove back to Hamilton to see the All Blacks play Ireland in their first test of the season. Dale was ecstatic, and dad got to hang with Jamie, Phillip, and Junior. I’m not a particular fan of rugby, but I do enjoy sports so I had a good time. The atmosphere was pretty good, and the beer was flowing freely. I imagine it was similar to attending an NFL match. That night we didn’t get to bed until 12:40AM. We then had to get up at 5:30AM to be at the airport by 7AM.

At this point we had a slight panic attack. Our original flight was scheduled at 7AM and later changed to 9AM. Dad didn’t confirm our flight, so I was already a little worried. Dad goes to drop off the rental car, while Dale and I went to check in. The two of us looked up at the schedule to see NZ 101 was closed and about to take off at its scheduled time of 7AM and without us on board. Noooo! Turned out not only did our time change, but our flight was changed also. Whew. The uncles and Junior, plus Uncle Paki and Auntie Tai, all came to see us off. What I learned is that it really sucks to have half your family live halfway around the world. I never understood this when I was a kid, but I get it now.

So, now we’re in Wollongong, about 1.5 hours south of Sydney. Monday we drove up to Sydney had visited the Opera House, drove across the Harbor Bridge. The streets of the city are wider, so it doesn’t have the pressed in feeling of Auckland’s narrow streets. That’s really all I have to say about Sydney. We were up at 7:30 that morning, still working on Auckland time. I would have been okay if I’d gotten a good solid night of sleep on Monday evening. Instead, we stayed up to watch Australia v. Japan and the USA v. Czech in the World Cup. Grandma Mary and Tony have a big widescreen TV so we didn’t go out to a pub. Tony stayed up with us and we were nice and loud cheering on the Socceroos. The U.S. game was very disappointing and I’d rather not talk about it. It was a lousy thing to watch just before going to bed at 4AM after being awake for 20.5 hours.

All day yesterday Dale and I were feeling loopy. We did get 7 hours of sleep, but that didn’t help any. It was a strange sensation, not having any sense of the day, or what time it was. Very disorienting. By the end of the day, we were both getting silly. We were admiring some large fish in a pet store and I decided it would be funny to have a fish named “Filet.” Dale thought it would be better to have two fish, one named “Fish” and the other “Chip.” We found this very humorous indeed, giggling like a couple of twelve  year old girls. There are other examples of our loopiness, but I will spare you.

Also, this is the end of the pictures until we get home and I can use my scanner. Dad has left his digital camera somewhere in NZ. Adios for now!