Hello! As some of you will be aware, we went home at the end of December 2001, spending 2 weeks back at home in the paradise that is New Zealand. We promised, while home, to try and update this website more often. So, here goes...

A few highlights of our time back home. First, there was the food. New Zealand food is fantastic, and packed with nutritious goodness. We were able to survive the rigours of travel, and lack of sleep due to staying up late and watching Buffy, purely because of the boundless energy and strength we got from NZ wonderfood. It also tasted delicious - bread that actually tasted like bread! Ahhhh, heaven.

Our journey to New Zealand started in a shaky manner. Having got up at 4am on Christmas Day, in order to make our 9.30am flight, we stumbled out into the cold and caught the first in a series of 3 trains that would carry us from Kita-Kogane to Narita Airport. We arrived at the airport at about 6.45 (having been told to check in at least 2 hours before the flight), only to find that the check-in counter didn't open until 7.30. We sat around (not even the cafes were open), tried to call home with Christmas Day wishes (the calling company we use wasn't working), and generally twiddled our thumbs until 7.30. We checked in quite quickly, after a nice Japanese security guard rummaged through our suitcase. We filled in the hour and a half until boarding time drinking coffee and browsing in shops. Despite the fact that we entered the gate area only 5 minutes after the first call to go to the gate, we still managed to be paged on the airport system as the last 2 passengers needing to board the plane. Much running to gate ensued. However, after only 2 minutes of taxiing out toward the runway, a fault with the engines was detected, and the plane returned to the terminal (being towed by some kind of truck). They told us it would be fixed in about 10 minutes. Two hours later, we got off our plane and transferred to another Cathay Pacific flight for the trip to Hong Kong. We had been anticipating an 8 hour stopover in Hong Kong airport, so we weren't too worried - as long as the 2nd plane actually got off the ground safely. The departure area of Hong Kong Airport was a little disappointing - expensive, strange smelling food, overpriced duty free, and NZ$25 for a shower! Unfortunately, we had to sit around for 5 hours, twiddling our thumbs. We read magazines, drank pricey cokes, Debz had a shower, and time slowly passed. The flight from Hong Kong to Auckland took 10 and a half hours, which wasn't fun, but we really felt like we were on the way home which made it much more bearable.

In Auckland, we stumbled off the plane into a pleasantly warm, weirdly English speaking country. Immigration and ncustoms procedures were painless but time consuming, and we were soon wandering around Auckland Airport, looking for Matt's family. We spotted Adam at McDonald's, and met up with him and Matt's Dad. Sad to say, the first thing we ate when we arrived in New Zealand was not, as Matt had planned, a meat pie. It was a McDonald's chip. Nor indeed did we find meat pies at either of the service stations we stopped at on the way to Tauranga (for this express purpose). It was, I suppose, boxing day, but it was a dissappointment none the less, mitigated by large quantities of Burger King. Burger King tried to establish stores in Japan, but the Japanese thought that the meat was burnt and the flavour was far too strong, so they closed down.

Tauranga was fantastic - sunshine, occasional rain, fantastic food, family, Lord of the Rings movie, beach walks... Ahhhh... Sleeping in a real bed! Paradise! We stayed in Tauranga for three nights, then drove down to Wellington (with Adam) in a rental car. The trip was long, but we got to see lots of our (now beloved) New Zealand, and listen to some great Henry Rollins spoken word/stand-up comedy albums. A long drive brought us to Belmont, to the barky, enthusiastic but slightly confused welcome of Bronte (and the more human welcomes of David and Barbara).

We stayed in Wellington for a week, visiting people, drinking a little, seeing Fellowship of the Ring again (at the embassy), and generally having a good time and eating fantastic food. We were treated to 2 delicious christmas dinners - 1 in Tauranga and 1 in Wellington. We didn't ever want to leave New Zealand again.

We journeyed down to Christchurch on the 5th of January, to attend Matt's sister Lynda's wedding. Christchurch is a pretty beautiful city, but the weather was crazy - hailstorms in January? The wedding was stunning - really beautiful in every way. The speeches at the reception were all fantastic, and we had a lot of fun throwing food around, and using spoons as catapults. Well, OK, only Matt was using a spoon to catapult food, but he enjoyed himself enough for everyone. Our table (consisiting of Matt, Debz, Adam, our 2 cousins and their girlfriends, and 2 friends of Lynda) seemed to be the 'naughty' table, which was fun. Some of our naughtiness was fueled by 'special grape juice' (it was a dry wedding), but mostly it was just exuberant hi-jinx. A fabulous time was had by all.

We flew out of New Zealand on the 8th, spent a night in Hong Kong, then returned to Japan. It wasn't too hard to leave, as we both felt that there were things in Japan that we still want to do, places we want to see. It was, however, very hard to go back to work - our 2 week break was long enough to both forget how to do our jobs, and become accustomed to a life without Nova. We were back into the swing of things within a few days, but we still resent having to go to work 5 days a week. This is just life, the way it always is, but for 2 weeks we were able to live a wonderful dream life, where we didn't work, but we had money, where we could enjoy all the wonders and comforts of home while still enjoying a Japanese salary. Sigh. It is now at least 5 months before we can come home again. Hopefully, we will receive some visitors in this time, so we may see some of you before July. Keep well, take care of your chi (Ki o tsukete), and keep sending us messages and postcards and updates on your lives.

Lynda Cowens and Gregg Le Roux's Wedding, January 6th 2002

Goofy looking Wellingtonians, January 4th 2002

Take care.

Debbie and Matt