Day 55: Cleaning My Shoes

I know, you're interested in the shoe thing. I'll get to it.

This morning I had to leave Waitomo and return to Auckland to get a flight to Los Angeles. I had a bus booked and an airport hotel for tonight. But the bus stop was over eight kilometers away, near the caves. And if you've been reading you know that this has been the bane of my existence in Waitomo over the past few days.

But all was not lost, my roommate Erin was also leaving Waitomo, and since she's from Sydney, she knows how to drive on the left side of the road. Plus she actually had a car. She was nice enough to give me a lift to my bus stop before she went on her way. Over the last day I've listened to her talk about all the great things she still has left to do on her trip, and in a few weeks she's even going to Japan. I was very jealous, especially with my time in New Zealand coming to an end.

I think of all the places I visited on this journey, New Zealand was my favorite. Of course that could be because I spent two weeks here as opposed to the few days I spent everywhere else, but I feel pretty confident saying it.

All I can do now to comfort myself is to promise to return, and look forward to finally getting back home. As much as I can go on about how sad I am to leave and how I will miss it, I am still very excited to get back home. I have never had an experience like the last forty-ish days (accounting for my time alone, so not counting Ireland, since I have traveled with people before). I know it will be good to take a breather back home before the travel bug ultimately starts scratching me where I can't itch.

There are too many places I haven't seen and too many places I want to visit again.

Oh right, the shoe thing.

I sat in my room, hungry for dinner. My shoes had a bit of mud coloring in them from the last few very wet days I had here in New Zealand. I don't mean that mud is caked on or hanging off, there was a noticeable light brown tinge to the normal blue shoes. So I did something I've never done before. I got s damp cloth and wiped down my shoes. This hotel was way more fancy than any of the hostels I stayed at, I couldn't go down to dinner with my shoes looking like that.

Somehow it feels like I aged a few years in that single act.

Tomorrow I return to the US. California is nineteen hours behind, which I'm sure will make for some strange jet lag. My flight leaves Auckland at 9am and arrives in LA at 4pm on the same day. But of course the flight is much longer than seven hours. It will be like I gained half a day back.

I've decided to keep the blog going at least until I'm truly home again on the east coast, and after that, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll keep it going, maybe I'll keep it to one day a week, or maybe I'll just post whenever I feel like it.

I don't need rules.

Ok enough about the end of all things, it will still be a week before I'm home.

For now, thanks for reading and here's to tomorrow.

P.S. In reference to the thumbnail. I in no way promote the use of illegal substances (whether or not they should be illegal is a question for another day), I just saw the van in the parking lot and thought it was funny that someone was actually driving it around. It's straight out of some dumb/great college movie.