Just a few hours left...

Once you've seen one amazingly beautiful, enchantingly magical New Zealand beech forest, you've seen them all...
It's time to go home. I've had a wonderful trip, and there are so so many things I would like to still see here in New Zealand, but conviently enough, with my ticket booked for this evening, I'm ready to go home. I haven't been in any one place longer than two nights since I left the house where I was housesitting, and now, five weeks later, my eyes are filled to the brim with stunning images from the New Zealand landscape. Now, everything, even the most magical scenes, feel familiar- beautiful but not mind-blowing in the way they were 5 weeks ago. It's a funny feeling, a weird change in my experience.
I wonder what it will be like to go back to the States. The travelling life in New Zealand has almost become the norm for me- I think the challenges of travel in the US will be a bit of a shock for me- especially because I am landing in LA with no clear plan.... um... yes... perhaps a plane, perhaps a car... to where? Oregon sometime next week, I think.... That kind of approach has worked here in New Zealand, we'll see if it works back home.
My blog is terribly out of date for all of the activities of the past few weeks. The glacier trip was amazing- I had almost no vision of what it would be like to climb up and around a glacier- just a few images in my mind from my sister's stories of her glacier hike in the Northwest. But even those images weren't accurate. The glacier was an ever-changing, icey mountain- grey and cold and craggy, but inside the crags, sometimes there were smooth, magical caves of crystal blueness. I went in one of these cold, slippery dens and, aside from a marked feeling of anxiety, was amazed at the juxtaposition of this ice against the ice of the outer face. I will include some pictures here at some point...
From the glacier, I went down to Southland, and to Fiordland National Park, meeting up with a British friend, Richard, I had met earlier. The options for exploring the park are limited and expensive- the Milford track was one of the most appealing options, but alas, because it is considered to be one of the most beautiful walks in the world, it is booked months and months in advance. So, we opted for the more adventurous route- kayaking.
We went on a guided kayak tour which started in the afternoon and continued until just before sunset. There was a small note in the description of this tour that it was for more "confident" and "hardy" kayakers. And I thought, "oh, we'll do fine..."
Then when we got there, they built it up even more! And Richard and I were both wondering what we had gotten ourselves into! And then, the boat ride out to the starting point.... We had a wind-against-tide chop which our little motor boat escort took as an excuse to jostle and throw us around, leaving us white-knuckled and more than a bit anxious about what on earth the kayaking was going to be like!!
But, yes, our sturdy double sea kayak handled the seas just fine. And the trip was amazing- we went under a 450 meter waterfall, and through the mile-high fiords. And with the wind behind us, the surf rolled us back to our starting point, leaving us with a relaxing paddle and plenty of time to look around.
And I guess I will share the rest of the stories for my return to the States. I should be back in Maine around mid-April, as I will be taking my time crossing the country, visiting friends and family along the way.
And now for my last New Zealand adventure, one more volcano hike!