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Published: November 9th 2011
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We're now back home, after uneventful flights from Hawaii-Auckland-Wellington and bus-train-drive back to Te Horo (thanks for leaving the car for us Carmen).
But the taxi ride from the hotel to Honolulu airport was memorable - in a white stretch-limo. We only asked for a taxi big enough to take all our luggage and this was the next 'cab' off the rank, at no extra cost and actually cheaper than taking the shuttle! A fun way to end the trip.
It's great to be back in the verdant green of late-spring in NZ, and to offload our bags for the last time - whew! Thanks to Amanda, our greatly-missed Roxy was at home to greet us in her most effusive fashion . And thanks to Elena and Luke, the house and garden were in immaculate condition. Warm fuzzies all round.
This trip has far far exceeded our expectations. We've managed to see almost all the people around the world that matter to us, and we've had some amazing experiences along the way. Katrina & Jackson have proved that they are really great travellers; hopefully some day they'll re-visit some of the places we've been to, and enjoy them
all over again. Best of all, we're still talking to eachother, despite months of sharing the same room!
Sincere thanks to the many people who helped make this trip possible - those back home in NZ, as well as the many people who put us up (and put up with us!) on our travels. You know who you are.
Right now, we're concentrating on unpacking everything, doing the washing, dealing with all the post/bills, etc. Once we're back on an even keel, Mike has to re-start his consultancy business, and Pat has to finish off her PhD thesis and look for paid employment, to help pay the price for all this extravagance. It might be lean for a while and we may not be travelling again for many years...
Signing off now,
Mike, Patricia, Katrina & Jackson
xxxx
PS to finish off, here's a quick "World Tour by the numbers" ...
Total distance flown: 44,000km (27,200 miles), on 13 separate flights.
Total distance driven 15,500km (9,600 miles)
(Europe: 5,300km; UK 2,500km; US 7,700km)
Number of countries visited: 11
(Hong Kong, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, Italy, Vatican City, France, UK, Canada &
USA)
Number of US states visited: 20
(Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Virginia, , Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Nevada, Arizona, California & Hawaii)
Number of different beds slept in: 59
(not counting places where we returned for more than one visit)
Different modes of transportation: 23+
(walking, swimming, car, train, bus, plane, boat, lift/elevator, escalator, roller-coaster, log-ride, ski lift, bicycle, toboggan, tractor, farm buggy, lawnmower, metro/tube train, horse, quad bike, cable car, surf board & stretch-limo!)
Number of photos taken: approx. 3,500
(plus a thousand or more others that we discarded in order to keep the total managable)
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