New Zealand - 2023

Pacific Ocean: what day is it?

Just two weeks before our trip, United inaugurated their direct service from San Francisco to Christchurch, on New Zealand's South Island (a first for any airline!). Covering approximately 7,000 miles, this 14-hour non-stop flight took us all the way down to the 43rd parallel south (i.e., Christchurch is just as far below the equator as Milwaukee is above it!). Christchurch is the southernmost city of its size, but interestingly, despite the lengthy north-south distance that we traveled, New Zealand is only three hours ahead of SF (so jet lag isn't too bad), but you do "lose" a day in transit by crossing the International Date Line. We put my accrued United "PlusPoints" to work and luckily secured upgrades for both of us, making the long haul a tad more comfortable.

Christchurch: In and Out

Upon arrival in Christchurch (Ōtautahi in native Māori), we were greeted with a luggage-sniffing dog and free COVID tests - not sure which Emily, the puppy-loving infectious disease doctor, was more excited about. Our campervan rental company, Sunrise Holidays, picked us up from the airport and took us to a nearby depot - their license plate was "Mr RV", so you know they must be legit.

We've done a few campervan trips before in the US (e.g., Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, etc.), but this was the first time we've splurged for a slightly larger model - one that came with a full bathroom! We were also one of the very few unbranded campervans, which meant locals often thought we were Kiwis (and boy were they disappointed when they learned we were from the States). At their depot, Sunrise Holidays set us up with our home-on-wheels for the next two weeks (affectionately named "Frank"). They walked us through all of the onboard systems and rules of the road - the most important rule being...STAY LEFT!

We made a quick visit to the nearby grocery store to stock up on supplies (read: Diet Coke) and then headed downtown to pick up our rental Surly gravel bikes (a brand based in Bloomington, Minnesota). With almost all of the Christchurch buildings appearing like new construction, it was clear how much the 2011 earthquake had affected the city. At 6.2 magnitude, the earthquake was New Zealand’s costliest natural disaster (NZ$77B) and the fifth deadliest disaster (185 deaths). Although we wish we had a bit more time to explore and learn about the history of the city, we had an ambitious seven-hour drive ahead of us (and only after a few hours of quality sleep on the plane). We secured our bikes to the back, got in the left lane, and began our northward journey.

About halfway up the eastern coast from Christchurch, we made a pit stop in Kaikōura. The first European establishment here was a whaling station in 1842. Later referenced as "the town that whales built", quite literally, some of the original cottages used whalebones as their foundations. Today, whale- and dolphin-watching are the main tourist ventures. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to partake in either. Instead, we had a quick bite to eat downtown at Groper Garage (the recommended Slam Club was packed) and then headed out to the Kaikōura Penninsula for a short walk along the coast (Strava) - the peninsula extends into the sea south of the town, and the resulting upwelling currents bring an abundance of marine life from the depths of the nearby Hikurangi Trench.

We saw so many seals (specifically, really adorable baby seals) that unfortunately don't photograph well from a distance. I accidentally almost stepped on a rather large adult that was hiding in the brush, which barked very aggressively and gave me the scare of my life - was about to be on an episode of the Tooth & Claw animal attacks podcast...

We arrived in Kaiteriteri late into the night on our first day - thankfully, with it being the height of the summer, we had sunlight on our drive until ~9:30 pm. Kaiteriteri was our first jumping-off point around Abel Tasman National Park.

Abel Tasman: rainy paradise

The Abel Tasman National Park was founded in 1942, largely through the efforts of ornithologist Pérrine Moncrieff (the region being home to a wide variety of birds). Unfortunately, we woke up on our first day to some rainy/overcast conditions (and a parking brake that wouldn't disengage), but that wasn't going to stop us from our planned activities. We finally got the van in drive and parked down by Kaiteriteri Beach, gearing up for a wet bike ride on the nearby highway climb & some mountain bike trails (Strava; 28mi, 3,700ft).

After burning a few thousand more calories than our bodies were likely ready for, we hit up the nearby Toad Hall Cafe. Ahead of our trip, the CEO of the campervan company (Cy, one of the most Kiwi people I've ever met) held a Zoom session with us to review our itinerary and give recommendations along our path to make the most out of our trip - Toad Hall was one of his 10 out of 10 recommendations.

We next drove up the precarious Taka Hill road, the very same route we just cycled up, but now down into the Golden Bay side of Abel Tasman National Park. This is the bay where Tasman anchored in 1642, becoming the first European explorer to sight New Zealand. Tasman had departed from Batavia (now Jakarta), Indonesia on an expedition into the uncharted regions of the Southern Pacific Ocean. On this trip, he discovered both Tasmania, which he called Van Diemen's Land, and New Zealand, which he originally called Staten Landt (later renamed after the Dutch province of Zeeland) - yes, New Zealand could have been "Staten Island", which I'm sure would have come with orange ferries and Pete Davidson.

We made a quick stop at Grove Track in Tākaka for a walk along a path etched naturally into some of New Zealand’s oldest rocks over a period of 400 million years.

We continued to our next campsite, Tōtaranui Beach, in the depths of the Abel Tasman National Park (a 45-minute windy drive on a one-lane gravel road). When we got to the remote campsite, we immediately geared up for a hike along the famous Abel Tasman Coast Track. This full track is one of New Zealand's "Great Walks" - there are ten in total, representing some of the country's best scenery. We only had time for part of the track, going out and back to the empty, beautiful Anapai Bay (Strava; 5mi, 600ft).

The next day we started with a drive up to Cape Farewell, the northernmost part of the South Island. Named by British explorer Captain James Cook in 1770, it was the last land seen by his crew as they departed on the ship's homeward voyage. The nearby Farewell Spit (a long narrow sandbar extending into the Golden Bay) is a seabird and wildlife reserve, holding up to 25% of the total New Zealand shorebird population!

We swapped our hiking shoes for bike shoes and set off for Wharariki Beach, which gained international attention after being the Microsoft Windows 10 screensaver starting in 2015. This very short bike ride ended up being one of our most adventurous (Strava; 4mi, 400ft), requiring river fording and quite a bit of bike-hiking through mud.

After jumping over fences, walking through sheep poo, and hiking through thick brush for over an hour, we finally reached the isolated end of Wharariki Beach. We had this stunning area all to ourselves, dipping our tired feet into the Tasman Sea (if you haven't noticed yet, everything is named after that guy).

By recommendation of the campervan CEO, we drove to the nearby Langford Store. The surrounding town, founded in 1896, was originally called Riverdale, but later switched to Bainham, a portmanteau of the surnames of two of the first European families to settle in the area, Bain and Graham. The combined post office and general store was built in 1928 by the local postmaster, Edward Langford - we met the third generation of Langfords working the counter. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, checked out their extensive historical artifacts collection, and jumped into a nearby swimming hole, Salisbury Falls.

It was time to head to our next campsite - a beachside spot in the small town of Collingwood. With only a population of 330, it's hard to believe that Collingwood was once considered for the capital of New Zealand - in the 1860s when this decision was being made, Collingwood was a bustling center of the gold rush in the Aorere Valley. We made our way over to The Mussel Inn for dinner, which they self-describe as "Kiwi woolshed / tramping hut meets Aussie farmhouse" - the vibes were on-point and we enjoyed their home-brewed beers, ales, and ciders (and of course Emily actually had mussels...I hate those nasty things).

West Coast: Merry Christmas

Christmas! Sunshine! From the north end of the island, we snaked five hours along the Buller River, which spit us out onto the sunny west coast of New Zealand. As beautiful as the Abel Tasman region was, we were pretty excited to find the weather on the west coast was looking a lot less rainy. During a quick stop in Westport, we did a short hike along Cape Foulwind (Strava; 3.5mi, 500ft). The path takes you right to a colony of New Zealand fur seals - we were in the country during pupping season, which meant lots of adorable baby seals rolling around the rocks.

On this hike, Emily learned the hard way about the thinned ozone layer above New Zealand (though now much better). The strength of UV radiation and its capacity to cause sunburn is approximately 40% higher than for similar latitudes in the northern hemisphere (one contributor to why the country has the highest rates of melanoma skin cancer in the world). From then on, we basically drank SPF50... Continuing south, we reached our campsite in Punakaiki. The rocky cliffs paired with beautiful tropical beaches felt like the perfect mix of Hawaii and California. 

After settling into our new campsite, we took our gravel bikes on the Inland Pack Track (Strava; 11mi, 1,300ft) for a Christmas Day adventure! This trail through the Paparoa National Park is typically a two or three-day trek - we decided to just go as far along as we felt comfortable before turning around. We definitely pushed the limits of our gravel bikes (quite literally, with one of the most difficult/stressful tire changes I've ever performed) and would love to do this full track someday on proper mountain bikes.

At the end of our ride, we visited the famous Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. The regular layering in the Pancake Rocks results from a process called stylobedding. We were honestly pretty exhausted from our ride and only stayed for 10 minutes before heading back to the campsite for warm showers and a beer on the beach. This was one of our favorite campsites in terms of scenery with how tropical everything felt - I wouldn't be surprised if there is a hidden entrance to Jurrasic Park somewhere around there...

The next day we drove to Hokitika - the largest town in the Westland District. It is also one of the wettest places in New Zealand, with over 110in of rainfall per year. Thankfully, we got a relatively clear day for our longest bike ride of the trip - West Coast Wilderness Trail (Strava; 63mi, 2,700ft). The entire trail is typically ridden in three or four days, but given our tight schedule, we opted to knock out the middle section during our stunning six-hour ride. This "metric century" (i.e., 100km) was one of the highlights of our trips. It's convinced us that we want to invest in gravel or mountain bikes back home - there is something nice about not having cars whipping past you on the road at 60mph!

Pretty shattered from the bike ride, we fueled up in the only restaurant open on Boxing Day, Stumpers Bar & Cafe (we were bummed that the "best sandwich place in NZ", The Hokitika Sandwich Company, was closed). We then drove further down the coast to our next campsite at Gillespies Beach. Extremely remote, we arrived just in time for a sunset on the beach, a full moon, and our first sighting of Mt Cook (the highest mountain in New Zealand), which was barely peaking above the clouds in the distance.

With the overcast conditions on the West Coast, we decided not to invest in the popular Franz Josef Glacier or Fox Glacier hikes or helicopter rides. Instead, we crossed our fingers that we would get better conditions when on the other side of the mountain range while at Mount Cook (spoiler: we did, and it was amazing). We made our way to Haast Pass, which separates the West Coast region from the Otago region. Along the way we stopped at Thunder Creek Falls and Fantail Fall, two very high "bang for your buck" walks out to the clear/turquoise Haast River.

We weren't the only ones on our honeymoon in New Zealand! We recently attended the wedding of our friends Smitha and Mike (Smitha and Emily were co-residents at UCSF) who were also exploring the island in a campervan. We chatted at the top of Haast Pass, exchanging lots of trip recommendations (we were heading in opposite directions) and taking tours of each other's vans. If you notice, I'm the only idiot not wearing long pants. This is a problem because the West Coast is home to the infamous sandfly, a biting type of black fly. During this meetup alone, I probably received 20+ bites - thankfully, these horrible pests are pretty constrained to the wetter West Coast region, and we would only briefly see them again in Milford Sound.

Wānaka: Blue Skies, Burning Thighs

Into Wānaka we headed - a popular ski and summer resort town. It reminded us of some Colorado towns, maybe like Frisco with its lake and proximity to hiking/skiing. At this point in the trip, I was in burrito withdrawal (the base of my food pyramid in SF) so we stopped for some delicious Mexican food at Burrito Craft and then made our way over to the trailhead of our next hike. Roy's Peak (Strava; 10mi, 4,100ft) is without a doubt the most popular hike in the area. Named after the Scottish outlaw/folk hero Rob Roy, this somewhat grueling track (given the relentless sun exposure) gains a ton of elevation, providing unmatched views of Lake Wānaka and the surrounding area the whole way up.

One fun part about the hike is that you walk alongside sheep for most of the trek. It was the middle of lambing season in New Zealand, meaning we met lamb/mother pairs around every corner. These curious creatures provided lots of entertainment during the four-hour hike. Once back to the trailhead, we drove into town, scarfing down as many calories as we could at Speight's Ale House before it was time to make our way to the next campsite, Kidds Bush. This gorgeous site was right on the neighboring Lake Hawea, providing us with a much-needed "shower". 

The next morning we headed back into Wānaka for a grab-and-go breakfast and walk on the lake before driving up toward Mount Aspiring. The broader Mount Aspiring National Park is just a short drive from downtown Wānaka and is home to over 100 glaciers. We once again put our gravel bikes to the test with an off-road ride up to Aspiring Hut (Strava; 17mi, 1,300ft). This historic hut in the spectacular Matukituki Valley has 32 bunk beds for folks overnight tramping - we met several hikers from Australia who were in the midst of a multi-day hike in the national park (and who were quite jealous of how much quicker we covered ground on our bikes). With nearly perfect riding conditions, this stunning Switzerland-esque landscape was my favorite bike ride of the trip!

At the end of our ride, we met the friendliest elderly New Zealand man who was so proud to talk about all of his daughter's accomplishments at the nearby Mt John Observatory. Funny enough he asked us if we knew about MIT, which only then snowballed into a much longer conversation (his wife was very ready to actually start the hike they came to do). Eventually wrapping up the conversation, we made a final stop in Wānaka for another lake "shower" and calorie binge.

Fiordland: I'm On A Boat

The Milford Sound, actually a fiord (formed by glaciation not a river), attracts up to one million tourists every year, making it one of New Zealand's most-visited tourist spots even with its remote location. Most people do a day trip from Queenstown, taking either a brutal tour bus ride or a much more pleasant short flight (the latter having a high chance of cancellation given weather - sorry Smitha/Mike). With our campervan, we decided to drive ourselves down as close to Milford Sound so that we could get on the first boat the next morning (before all the tour buses arrived). This four-hour journey from Wānaka took us through Te Anau where we ate bao buns and drove along Lake Te Anau (the largest lake in the South Island; also home to famous glow worm caves). We made a quick pit stop at Mirror Lake (the ducks swimming around in it kinda messed up the whole mirror thing...) before reaching our campsite, Cascade Creek.

Being the true psychopaths that we are, we got up super early and arrived at Milford Sound as the first car in the parking lot. This was really the only "big experience" we paid for on this trip, booking a two-hour cruise with Mitre Peak (a recommendation from Cy, as they operate the smallest boats, which made it feel less like herding sheep). Even with the overcast day, the boat ride was an absolute highlight of the trip. Milford Sound sports two permanent waterfalls, Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls. However, after a rainy day (like the morning of our cruise), there are hundreds of temporary waterfalls. We had so much fun being the idiots outside on the decks getting absolutely drenched every time the captain brought us underneath these roaring cascades.

Queenstown: Adventure Capital

Absolutely soaked after the Milford Sound cruise, we changed into dry clothes and made our way back through Te Anau (stopping at the yummy Sandfly Cafe for lunch) to Queenstown. The town is situated on the shore of Lake Wakatipu, the third largest lake by surface area in New Zealand. Queenstown is best known for its tourism businesses, especially adventure (sky diving, bungy jumping, etc.) and ski tourism - it was definitely the most commercial stop on our trip. Our campsite, Driftaway Queenstown, was the first site we were staying at for longer than a single night - it was also the nicest one yet, which included much-needed laundry facilities. We put a load of dirty clothes in the washer before heading out on a short shakeout ride around Kelvin Peninsula (Strava; 11mi, 700ft). Afterward, we headed to the vibey, outdoor Gantley's Tavern in nearby Arthurs Point for delicious sandwiches and beer.

At the start of our full day in Queenstown, we biked on the town's extensive cycling trail network - we chose the Twin Rivers Trail (Strava; 33mi, 2,700ft). This beautiful ride along the Kawarau and Shotover River took us all the way out to the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge. Opened in 1880, this bridge was used by early settlers to travel to nearby Cromwell, bypassing the 50km churning river through the Kawarau Gorge. Today, it is home to a big bungee and zipline operation. With public bathrooms and Diet Coke for purchase, we took our sweet time at this stop, watching scared souls plunge into the gorge below (big cheers when the rope calculations were perfect and the jumper's head dipped into the river).

After a quick stop back at the campsite, we boarded the nearby water taxi to take us into downtown Queenstown. Little did we know, this was likely the most adventurous part of our jam-packed day. With strong winds, the lake had massive swells, tossing the little boat around in all directions. We were having the time of our lives (and someone's pug who was casually walking up and down the aisle), but a few folks were not amused. We eventually made it to the town (they ceased all rides for the day given the conditions) and continued our tradition of grabbing some Mexican food at Miss Rita's Cantina ahead of another big hike.

This next big hike was Ben Lomond (Strava; 7mi, 3,500ft). For all you Scott-heads out there, you'll recognize that the name Ben Lomond is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands - the popularity in Scotland has resulted in namesakes in the former English colonies Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US. Instead of starting from the city center, we opted to take the scenic gondola up to the next trailhead, which cut out a bit of elevation from what would have been a nearly 5k-foot climb (we didn't have that in the legs after the bike ride...). The main track runs through an exotic Douglas Fir forest before opening up into tussock grasslands. From there, the track follows a ridgeline up to the saddle between Ben Lomond and Bowen Peak before becoming quite steep for the summit track to the top. The scenic view at the top gives a 360-degree panorama of much of Lake Wakatipu, The Remarkables Mountains (a very popular ski resort), Cecil Peak, and Walter Peak. There were only three other people at the peak - a group of friends from Bentonville, Arkansas (all decked out in Rapha jackets)! With the varying sections and more technical finish, we enjoyed this hike a bit more than the more exposed, monotonous Roy's Peak hike. 

Arriving back in downtown Queenstown, we were met with bustling streets - it was clear that the number of tourists was spiking with the upcoming NYE celebrations. After having difficulty finding availability at an Italian restaurant to address our strong post-hike desire for pasta, we settled on White & Wong's (Asian fusion) where we were seated along the chef's table (making for an entertaining meal watching their stressful "yes chef" dynamics). Afterward, we met up with another SF friend in New Zealand - Dan was traveling with his family around the island, and he also happened to be friends with another MIT graduate (a year below us) who was in town that night. All of us met at a local bar and once again exchanged notes on our favorite Kiwi activities.

We said goodbye to the wonderful Driftaway campground and made our way to nearby Arrowtown for breakfast. This extremely quaint town (one of the places we went, "we could live here") was founded in 1867, a few years after Jack Tewa (known as Maori Jack) found gold in the Arrow River. We had a meal at a wonderful place, The Dishery Restaurant, before exploring the nearby well-preserved buildings used by the early Chinese immigrants during the mining era. Afterwards, we drove over to Chard Farm (a recommendation by our New Zealand friend in SF - shoutout Sam) for a wine tasting. As we were told ahead of time, the wineries in New Zealand were so much more chill than Napa. We got an amazing tasting of their many white wines (and one red) with the fees waived after purchasing a bottle of their Sauvignon Blanc.

Mount Cook: New Year Celebrations

From Queenstown, we had a 3.5-hour drive up to Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. I've restrained myself up to this point, but it's time to talk about Lord of the Rings. "Tolkien tourism" is a phenomenon of LOTR fans making pilgrimages to sites of film- and book-related significance (the annual tourist influx grew 40%, from 1.7M in 2000 to 2.4M in 2006, which has been attributed in large part to this phenomenon). On our way to Mount Cook, we drove through Twizel, which is where the battle of the Pelennor Fields was filmed (IYKYK). Along the way, we stopped at NZ Alpine Lavender for some lavender-infused ice cream (we were too cheap to actually buy a ticket to walk in the lavender fields) and Lake Pukaki Viewpoint. This lake is the largest of three roughly parallel alpine lakes running north–south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin. The glacial feed to the lakes gives them a distinctive blue color, created by glacial flour - the color is even more pronounced on windy days like ours (it was hard to capture just how unnaturally bright blue the water truly was). We finally arrived at White Horse Hill Campground, which sits right at the start of all the popular trailheads in the national park.

The Mount Cook area was gazetted as a national park in October 1953 and consists of reserves that were established as early as 1887. Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain (12,218ft), and the eponymous village lie within the park (Mount Cook Village only consists of a hotel and motels, as well as housing and amenities for the staff). Upon entering the park on a partly overcast afternoon, we didn't quite realize just how close we were to the mountain. With the weather conditions, we decided to bike down the other (more sunny) valley that afternoon (Strava; 14mi, 800ft), arriving at Tasman Lake (yes, another thing named after him). We did a small hike in our cycling kits from the parking lot to see the beautiful, uniquely-colored lake. On the way back, we stopped at The Old Mountaineers Cafe for a beer and pizza, reading all the amusing bad reviews about their undercooked microwave pizzas (which we thought was actually quite yummy).

Holy cow - the mountains! We woke up to a perfectly clear day, which we've since learned is exceedingly rare. With these amazing conditions, we were ready to make the most out of the day by hiking till our feet fell off. First, we made our way down the Hooker Valley track (Strava; 7mi, 700ft). Given the high accessibility of the trail, it gets pretty packed later in the day as tourists drive into the national park - we were lucky to be camping right next to the trailhead so our early start gave us a relatively quieter time on the track. This gentle path hit us with our first view of the stunning Mt Cook (which Emily kept calling "Mt Cookie" just to annoy me). The first known ascent was on 25 December 1894, when New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, John Michael Clarke, and George Graham reached the summit via the Hooker Valley. Mt Cook is a technically challenging mountain with a high level of glaciation - with 80 deaths, it's New Zealand's deadliest mountain with usually at least one fatality per hiking season (don't worry, we didn't make a go for the peak...).

We made a quick stop back at the van for sandwiches before packing up for our second hike of the day, which was going to be a bit more of a doozy. Mueller Hut (Strava; 7mi, 3,400ft), situated right above our campsite, provides a 360-degree panorama encompassing glaciers, ice cliffs, vertical rock faces, and mountain peaks. Starting with what is dubbed the "stairway to heaven", the 2,200 steps took us straight up to the freshwater lakes of Sealy Tarns (a tarn is a small mountain lake excavated by a glacier). From there, we scrambled up rocks and boulders to the top ridge. The hard work was absolutely worth it - we were met with summer snowfields and a jaw-dropping view of the surrounding mountains. Originally built in 1914, the present Mueller Hut is the fifth hut to be built with that name on the mountain - many were destroyed by avalanches,  and they had to drop building supplies from aircraft for repair. The hut has 28 bunks and a big kitchen/deck for eating, relaxing, and taking in the stunning views. At the top, we met a friendly New Zealand couple who recently traveled to California for a trip along Highway One - we exchanged stories, wrote our names in the guest book, and started the knee-busting descent.

Akaroa: The End is Near

After an exhausting day in the park, we slept like babies. We woke up early for our final long drive - time to head back towards Christchurch. We made a pit stop at The Greedy Cow at the base of  Lake Tekapo. As advertised by our New Zealand friends, this was one of the best sausage rolls we've ever had. We continued to the southeast of Christchurch onto the Banks Peninsula - more specifically, the town of Akaroa. Geologically, the peninsula comprises the eroded remnants of two large composite shield volcanoes, making for rolling hills and stunning bays. We stopped at The Common for lunch (which was all out of chicken... one star) - Emily ran across the street and got some of the town's famous fudge.

We booked a kayaking adventure in the Akaroa Harbour, hoping to see some of the area's famous wildlife (including the Hector's dolphin - the smallest and rarest marine dolphin in the world). Unfortunately, we were met with some extremely high winds, which meant we were pretty limited with the distance that the group could travel (we were also paired with, no joke, maybe the slowest kayakers ever to exist...). Given the slower pace, we enjoyed this more relaxing activity on the water, soaking in the New Zealand sun on our last full day in the country. From there, we traveled to our final campsite (on a different part of Banks Penninsula), Orton Bradley Park. 

That night, we packed up our bags, cleaned the campervan, and prepared for what was likely going to be a bit of a stressful morning (at least I was really stressed about all the logistics). The next morning, we returned the rental bikes, filled up the gas/propane/water, and dropped off the campervan. Unlike on the way into New Zealand, this time we had a connecting flight through Auckland (the new, direct to SF didn't line up with the day we had to return). I paced around the Christchurch airport as our inbound flight was more and more delayed. It was becoming increasingly likely that we were going to miss the connection (which required a walk between domestic and international terminals + customs/security) and spend a night in Auckland. We landed in Auckland 30 minutes before our flight to San Francisco ended boarding. We should have recorded the subsequent run on Strava because Emily and I SPRINTED between terminals, screaming for people to get out of our way. The line at customs was way too long to make the flight (and were once again pretty deflated) - Emily asked a customs agent if we could move to the front to which they said "No". I asked the same person two minutes later and they let us through. Emily said "It was because you are a man" - we didn't have time to analyze the patriarchy at the time, and continued our sprint to the gate. Upon arrival, the gate agents were thoroughly impressed by our speediness ("Hey, these are the two from Christchurch flight; how the hell did they do that"), which gave us great satisfaction. I kept it a secret from Emily, but that morning we were upgraded on the way back to SF as well. We sat our sweaty bodies into the comfy, wider seats and started the relatively shorter 11-hour flight back to SF. It was a truly amazing "honeymoon" in a beautiful country.

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