Airplanes Forever

Seattle -> LAX : 2.5 hrs
LAX : 4 hrs
LAX -> Papeete, Tahiti : 8.5 hrs
Papeete : 2 hrs
Papeete -> AKL : 5 hrs
Customs in AKL : 1 hr
I am extremely glad that I don't need to get on a plane again for a while.

The plane rides were luckily uneventful and I managed to sleep for a good part of the longest one, putting me in a good position in terms of adjusting time zones. I had beautiful views of the sunset over the west coast as I flew down to LA, but unfortunately I didn't have a window seat for the other flights. Luckily we did end up having to get off the plane in Tahiti, so I got to experience some views and some 80+ degree tropical weather. Also, since Tahiti is part of French Polynesia, the announcements, signage and meals were all done in French, so that was pretty cool.

Sunset over the Pacific 

Tropical colors for Air Tahiti

Decorations to greet us off the runway

Goodmorning, Tahiti

After my last flight, I made my way through the multiple stages of customs. Luckily I have mostly new gear with me, because it turns out that "gear used in the outdoors" was one of the categories of items that needed to be declared. It will be interesting to figure out how to navigate that requirement on my way back. Amanda's family met me at the gate and I got my first views of Auckland as they drove me home. Amanda has such an itinerary planned out, I may not get to see it any more on this stage of the trip, though.

When I was still in Seattle, Natalie and I stopped by a used book store, and one of the books I picked up was "Between a Rock and a Hard Place", which is a biography of Aron Ralston centering around the accident in which he got his arm stuck between a fallen boulder and a canyon wall. He spends a good part of it telling tales of his close calls with bears, lightening and avalanches in the years leading up to the entrapment, so he ends up acknowledging that his history of risk taking and poor planning basically caught up with him. In any case, the fact that he had the mental gumption to rescue himself in the way that he did is impressive, and the book is filled with lots of quotes about the wilderness and adventure. One of the ones that I read on the plane ride came originally from Chris McCandless:

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
While it seems a bit of a hyperbole of my situation, this is a quote that will stay with me as I explore this new country.