Finding "Home"

Mitch:  The first two weeks of our adventure were certainly enjoyable, but I kept getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.  It took me a while to figure out what it was: when our Auckland/Northland travels were done, we still weren't going home.  Travelling in a foreign land is a very exciting and rewarding experience, but it became daunting when I was reminded that "I live here now".  We were- or should I say we ARE far away from home, and we aren't coming home any time soon.  That's intimidating.  Also, I read a newspaper about the Air Asia disaster and I dread flying already, so that didn't help.

I admittedly didn't enjoy Auckland as much as I should have.  I kept thinking of what I was doing one year ago, and how long ago that felt.  One year is a long time.  Jenna continuously reminded me that we can only take life one day at a time, and to not worry that much.  It was true- at that point in time I wasn't missing home an enormous amount. I was in a beautiful city, in perfect 24-degree weather, with my favorite person in the world.  What was there to worry about?   My nerves began to settle, though it took some time.  

So now that my fear of not returning home for a year is subsiding, it was time to find something else to terrorize my thoughts.  We traveled to Whangerai and got dropped off in the central basin.  The basin is quite nice; a cobblestone walkway snakes along the waterfront and beside several cafes.  A wide, artistic walking bridge crosses the stream flowing down from the mountains, and on the other side is our hotel.  The only problem is everything seemed a little old.  And I don't just mean dated; everything could use a coat of paint and some TLC.  I traveled to Costa Rica in February, a gorgeous country where geckos and spiders roam freely indoors, and indoors is a loose term that has nothing to do with if a building actually has doors.  Nice place to visit, but I certainly wouldn't live there.  Now, I'm not going to tell you NZ is like Costa Rica, but everything had the same dirt-around-the-edges-and-thats-okay feeling to it.  Most of these cafes and shops had faded signs, aging window dressings, and home-made signs in the windows.  Nothing really screamed modern comfort.  I started worrying that THIS is what my new home would be like.   We headed out for dinner; Destination: Downtown Whangerai- certainly this would be a little more comfortable, right?

Right beside the town basin is "downtown" Whangerai, or what was supposed to be downtown Whangerai.  This consisted of 3 or 4 blocks worth of shops.  Every shop was closed, and about half of them were closed permanently.  The place looked like a ghost town.  We learned three things that day: January 2nd is a stat holiday in NZ, restaurants which stay open on holidays add a 15% surcharge to your bill, and Whangerai is having some troubles.  I later read in the paper that local businesses are leaving town faster than Redskins fans at a home game.   I started worrying that I would be living the next year of my life in a do-nothing ghost town.  

We spent the next four days enjoying the nature around Whangerai, which is fantastic.   There's a brewpub in the town basin which is built to look like a pirate ship which is equally fantastic.  Afterwards we headed back to Auckland for an evening.  We stayed in a hotel overlooking the harbor, which was occupied by two large cruise ships and one extremely large cruise ship.  It was taller than the adjacent Hilton hotel, and was the largest cruise-liner in the world when it was first unveiled in 1999.   We tried to board it, but it turns out they have decent security on those things.  Sigh.  

After an evening of attempted-piracy, craft beers, and ice cream, we slept for a couple hours then boarded an early bus to our new home: New Plymouth. I told Jenna it felt like an arranged marriage. "Whelp. Here she is. This is what you get! No backing out now!".  Yeesh.  I was nervous. "I hope she's pretty" I said to myself.