Bye, Down Undah! Love Ya! Hel-L0, U. S. OF A.!

 I’M BA-ack!  And so excited to be home!  The American accents and attitudes everywhere in the San Francisco airport are actually quite heartwarming, surprise surprise.  We’ve got the spittin’ image of “Fargo” (the movie)’s "Jerry Lundegaard" at the adjacent table (Minne-SO-tah accent, looks, AND level of conversation!), a San Fran microbrew porter, and a 4.5-hour layover to enter into the homeland s-l-o-w-l-y.

Let’s backtrack a few days.

From Sydney, Oz back to Kiwiland and to Millie the Magnificent’s waiting arms – er, axles? Boy, did her bed feel great!  Her interior is sooooooo comfy and cozy.  We had only 3 nights/2 days left together before meeting up with her new owners in Wellington. Even though I can honestly say I have been looking forward to going home to my very-much-loved-and-missed-husband and Mid-coast Maine life these last couple of weeks, I still felt nostalgic that the “Millie & Me” chapter was drawing to an end. Along our southbound route, we had the fortune of helping a Maori hitchhiker get home to visit his family, with some interesting conversations over which we whiled away the kilometers.

Millie and I had a short bit of time to explore the southwest area of Mt. Taranaki (although it was foggy and rainy, so the mountain was not visible), the gorgeous Forgotten World Highway and the Republic of Whangamomona (a teensy town with a population of 30 that has declared freedom from NZ and claims it is its own republic/country!) They even have their own passport stamp, and entering/leaving Republic of Whangamomona signs on the “republic’s” borders.  Their first two presidents, consecutively, were a real GOAT and a TOY POODLE.)  It being the day before Millie was transferred to her new home, she decided to take our last day’s itinerary into her own hands by losing connection between the battery to everything else that matters: thus, she played dead.  Of course, she tested me by doing this on the very, very remote Forgotten World Highway.  LUCKILY, I found this out while parked on a hill (where I stopped to take photos of the never-tiring gorgeous NZ landscape), so I rolled her and popped her clutch (YAY for driving old cars most of my life – they have taught me well!)  In Whangamomona (leaving Millie running while I dashed into the hotel/pub to get my passport stamped so as not to get arrested (wink)), I turned us back south again toward civilization so we could figger out what was going on under the hood.  As we ticked off the kilometers, Millie acted more and more funky and we proceeded more and more slowly; to the point we were driving in 1^st gear the last kilometer, limping into the town of Stratford and almost stalling on the roundabout in front of my oasis – a Shell petrol station.  And then !the little bugger! said “HA HA!” by COMPLETELY reconnecting and recharging when I simply reversed into a parking spot! What a little stinker! (Mind you, I had reversed her at least once before in her “new condition”, with no effect.)  The employees at the Stanford Shell station were super-helpful in putting me in touch with two mechanics, and whacking at Millie’s battery connections with a wrench.  Spilling out Millie’s symptoms over the phone, the mechanics affirmed my suspicions: just a loose connection.  What a little tease she is! (Affectionately meant - didn’t spend a dime to fix anything!)

Drove on south to Wellington the next day for Millie’s transfer. Backtrack: I had been intending to reunite with a few people before going home: one being Elizabeth, my new soul mate from the Takaka/Buddhist Meditation Music Festival Chapter of this journey.  We were sending each other some quickie emails detailing our current whereabouts (as well as loving hopeful vibes) and planning to connect somewhere between Wellington and Auckland.  However, it seemed circumstances weren’t going to work out as deadlines and different locations were at play. We were bummed. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do…who should appear standing by the roadside (1 hour from the home of Millie’s new owners) but none other than opposite-direction-bound LIZ, with her thumb up!?!?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!  (Both of our reactions when we realized this profound serendipitous connection #2.) I swung Millie back around, jumped out of the van, and we hugged and laughed like there was no tomorrow! So awesome and bizarre and profound, this meeting up! Three reasons right off:  1) to my knowledge Liz was still driving her own camper van, 2) she was only the 2^nd hitchhiker I’d seen since Auckland 2 days previously, and 3) I am an extremely unobservant person and the fact I recognized her – especially out of character in an unexpected place - is such an ANOMALY! (ask Jeff!).  To put it shortly, for me, this happenstance was MAGICAL. PERIOD.

And so are the Days of Our Lives…   Ha ha!  More to come!  (Gotta catch a plane to Chicago...Chicago, that toddlin' town!)

I HEART Sydney!

Sydney and the folks who live there are amazing!  What a wonderful surprise to me, Sydney being the largest city in the country with 3.5 million inhabitants and growing.  People walking down the streets and waiting at traffic lights are so personable, with a wide range of smiles and humour on most faces.  This is a far cry from most big cities I have visited; with Chicago, Liverpool, and Dublin being other surprising exceptions.  But Sydney beats all!

So I had a one-night layover in Sydney after I left Brisbane, on my way back to NZ to transfer Miss Millie the Magnificent Van to her new owners.  (Brief parenthetical:  even though the sellers’ market is fierce this time of year (winter), Millie was sold – albeit for $1400NZ less than I paid for her - through an internet car market in less than 24 hours because of my glowing report of our travels together and the marvelous pics of her with spectacular NZ in the background.  And more than 15 interested buyers continued to contact me after the sale was made.  Totally rad, as I was a tad bit worried I would not be able to sell her because there were so many vehicles on the market!)  I arrived in Sydney at 9pm on the evening of my birthday, so of course I was going out to see what Sydney had to offer!  It just so happens the 2011 Art of Lights Festival is in full swing:  there are artistic light designs on several buildings such as the Sydney Opera House, and in the waterfront park at night.  Lots of people were strolling around admiring them, as I did.  Pretty cool.

On my way back to the hostel, I passed the first social establishment with live music and just as lively dancers I had seen all night. Of course I couldn’t walk by without exploring this Irish Pub’s contents! Within 5 minutes, I had 10 new Sydney pals (in 3 separate groups!) who were eager to help make my birthday a great one.  J Lots of dancing to mostly American music, even some country – very typical of both AU and NZ.  Well, at 5:00am two of those very friendly and welcoming locals were still rarin’ to go, but for the first time in a long while I wasn’t the last one to call it a night. Must be getting old!  ;) Nah…for the record, it was because I had a flight to catch early the next day, and the thought of a few hours’ sleep was mighty inviting. 

I love ya, Sydney!  Way to make my nearly last impression of OZ a very special one!