San Francisco

A quick dash back to Auckland International put us en-route to our next stop - San Francisco.

The Flight
Experience with New Zealand's 'airport tax' allowed us to skip the usual confusion and get pretty quickly to our plane. We were even given boarding passes for our connection (LA to SF) which was a new experience for me (and should have raised warning bells, I guess.)

Our flight was slightly delayed (and the flight attendant's definition of 'common-law marriage' was different from US customs, which slowed the processing of our entry papers) but we felt confident that we'd make our connection, even through the chaos of LAX. Qantas did not share our confidence, though - arriving at our connection we were told that they'd bumped us to a later flight. The staff seemed pretty familiar with this ploy, though, and managed to sneak us on to our original flight - even going so far as to offer us even odds that our bags would manage to do the same. A brief flight and a few anxious minutes at the baggage carousel later and they were vindicated, so we summoned a Bayporter and where whisked away to our destination - Berkeley.

Our Hosts
I doubt that in all our tavels, we will again stay in such salubrious surrounds. Our gracious hosts Kirk and Eric made us very comfortable in their guest house, and soothed our jetlag (which was vicious, in my case) with hotubbing and the contents of their spectacular cellar. And then they left; entrusting us with their home while they headed across the continent for varous conferences and events. Our experience with this charming and generous couple will always remain a high point of our trip, and a very happy memory.

Berkeley
Gushing aside, Berkeley was a comfortable and interesting place. Flying in the face of a few stereotypes the food was excellent, SUVs were rare (and hybrids plentiful) and the people friendly. And while everyone reminded me that Berkeley's not representative of the US (or even of other Californian cities) I still have a much more positive and nuanced sense of this frequently maligned country.

That said, we did hit some culture shock. My frustration over social inequality in AU was completely blown out of the water by the US - the rate of homelessness, for example, is vastly higher. I tried to convince myself that running their country was their own affair, but Mandy in particular found the ever-present destitute heartbreaking. And our row-companion on the flight over (hi, Mark :) ) made a profound point - while the beer he was enjoying would be counted as underaged drinking by the state, they already considered him old enough to join the army.

The City
Things are changing, though, as some delightful serendipity showed us - our stay coincided with the Supreme Court ruling anti gay marriage legislation unconstitutional. We headed straight for San Fran's famous gay district, the Castro, and joined the street party.

And that's just one of the districts we roamed over:
Japantown - a delicious meal after a grueling cross-town march. (We quickly learned to use the famous trolley cars.)
Fisherman's Wharf - bridges, seals and seafood.
Central - daunting architecture and kids begging me to buy GTA IV for them - what a mix.

Conclusion
All in all my first exposure to the US was really positive. As much as we were looking forward to the next part of our trip (the Coast Starlight to Vancouver) it was still hard to say goodbye to Kirk and Eric at the station. Thanks, guys - you made a good time great.

New Zealand

We spent our time on the shores of New Zealand in the care of friends; Craig & Tracey at the Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood.  Earthsong describes itself as: "...a cohousing neighbourhood based on the principles of permaculture, that will serve as a model of a socially and environmentally sustainable community" - values that really appeal to both Simon & I.

The first night we shared one of the twice weekly neighbourhood meals in the common room.  Earthsong is divided into teams who take turns preparing these communal meals.  This means that these teams cook for roughly 50 people about once every two months.  With the amount of food that is grown in the gardens, the would-be chefs can select from a beautiful organic supermarket, right outside their door... 

After dinner it was home to watch Invader Zim (Doom doom doom, da, doom) with some new friends (one of whom coincidentally has the same unusual surname and same first inital as Simon.)

The folllowing day we took the train into Auckland (an hour train trip compared to what is apparently a 20 minute drive - no wonder that people in NZ use cars to move around).  From there we took a surprisingly short ferry excursion over the bay to Devonport.  We explored some of the second hand bookshops - of which there are many - and then home to enjoy Stardust (the sequence of Robert de Nero as a pirate by day and a drag queen by night is certainly not easily forgettable...)

Raglan was our destination the last day and the highlight would was the Bridal Veil Falls.  55m high into a lagoon at the base... just beautiful.  The sign from the road to the falls said it would be a 10 minute walk but I think that was only if you were an old lady... with a limp... and maybe a backpack.  

One of the things that struck me the most about the foliage of NZ was that there were only subtle differences between Auckland and Melbourne.  Looking around showed an odd combination of tropical plants like you would see in Brisbane and many of the the same species as are in Victoria. Seeing gum trees in another country was a little jarring too. 

Interestingly, Simon's hair continues to make us new friends - apparently blue is a very difficult colour to achieve (we are often told) and vividness of the colour gets us both a lot of stares and comments. (As the person that is usually the one to attract the looks of others... it's kind of nice not to be the centre of attention for a change.)

Fight for your right for luggage

Packing for anything is a time of great stress... and luggage limits seem to be difficult goals to achieve for many.  Especially when one is away for all seasons.

Thanks to my brother Rob for his much needed if overly hair-raising ride to the airport.  I think we all would agree that the ride would have been much shorter if our 'last chance' petrol station hadn't been without power... that said; running on fumes always makes for an exciting journey - as does cornering a 10 year old station wagon on two wheels ;).

Simon & I had been 'discussing' (energetically) the baggage allowance for our trip since before leaving Albert St.  By the time we were staying at Mum's I had decided to call Qantas, in order to have the most up to date information on what we could actually take on our journey.

After queuing for about an hour at Melbourne International airport (making friends in the queue as we went) we were disappointed to discover that, according to the check-in agent, we were only allowed to carry on 1 bag of luggage weighing 20 kgs for the NZ leg - although the Qantas agent I spoke to on the phone had assured me that we could take more than three times that limit, across 2 bags.  Assuming that the airport staff had final authority, I found a storage place that would store my suitcase (until one of my long-suffering family would retrieve it) and proceeded to frantically re-organise what I was going to be living with for the next year.  15 minutes later I was running back to the check-in desk, because boarding time (never mind checking time) was growing close... 

...when we happened upon another Qantas agent, who confirmed our initial information of 32kgs x 2 bags - arising from our 'P class' status as 'round-the-world' travelers. Apparently our initial check-in agent should have checked our tickets better - the new manager casually mentioned that she would delegate the re-education of said underachiever very soon. So after running back to the place where I stored my bag, we were finally on our way, being whisked by a Qantas escort through customs and all the way to the gate. What a beginning.  I think it was to make sure that we knew we had started.

The calm before the storm

...or is that too theatrical? :)

We're tense, but trying to take this time to relax and charge our batteries. Last minute preparations - phones, insurance; final hardware check (music players loaded and charged, etc.)

We've already had our first major plan disruption (our LA stay became a connection after our accomodation fell through) but all our other hosts have been very responsive, so we remain confident about the rest of our itinerary.

The running joke currently is 'pre-jetlag' - sleeplessness before travel. Nerves and our volatile environment mean that we're fighting a losing battle to stablise our sleeping patterns.

All in all we're walking a knife's edge between excitement and panic. :)