Interim Update #1,272

So it's two months later and, as scheduled, we are in New Zealand, on the Pacific coast of the North Island (well, actually, the Firth of Thames), camped at Tapapakanga Regional Park, perhaps an hour's drive east of Auckland. We got to New Zealand Friday morning, the 30th of December (after a 15 hour flight from Dallas and probably 25 hours total in transit), picked up our Jucy Chaser camper, and spent the next few days getting organized and outfitted while camping at the Pine Harbour Marina, near Beachlands. 

There is much to recount from the past two months, but only a few blog posts, since not much of our time was spent really traveling. After our week with college friends Tawana and Wes in Arkansas, we flew to Knoxville for a week with Vicki's sister and her husband Norm. After that, we were three weeks in DC, visiting daughter Rachel, then house- and pet-sitting for her while she did a trip to London. After DC, we rented a car and drove to Cary, NC, where other daughter Rebecca and her family have re-located, and spent a week or so there, visiting, and working at our newer storage unit nearby.

Travel, of a sort, resumed when we drove to Savannah for a week's reconnaissance. We had spent some time there in the preceding spring, thinking about a place to finally settle, and wanted to give it another look. Former in-laws Joey and Jodi were wintering on nearby Tybee Island, so we spent a few days with them, eating and drinking well, and learning some mah jongg, before returning to Cary for the holidays. We departed for New Zealand on December 28. The story picks up in the next few posts...

Our next New Zealand camper, a Jucy Chaser, which I have
tentatively dubbed Le Truc Vert; self-contained, if not spacious, 
wet bath, galley, miniscule fridge...which Vicki booked nearly
a year ago for the hyper-screaming deal of $26/day, a price 
probably not to be seen until the next pandemic/recession