Hello from Saturday (and New Zealand)!

The Kuzmiak-Ngiams have landed safely in Auckland! The only thing we lost was Friday. (No worries. We'll go back and find it somewhere later in our trip.)

Our flight left at 10 PM on Thursday night. Boarding and take off were smooth. Our business class ticket provided us with an excellent post-take-off meal, and the seating arrangement allowed me to drop down my table AND invite Kee-Min over to my seat for dinner. The flight attendant even brought us a fake candle. Romance!

Our meal was complemented by some tasty New Zealand wines - I even liked Kee-Min's reds better than my Riesling - maybe my wine tastes are maturing, after all... We finished with some of the tastiest coconut ice cream I've ever had (OK, admittedly I usually go for chocolate on the ice cream front, so it's not like I'm an expert on coconut ice cream. But it was still good.) and a New Zealand dessert wine.

Then, we slept. For, like, 8-9 hours. It was WONDERFUL. Woke up for breakfast, and landed in New Zealand at 8 AM local time on Saturday morning. Conveniently, the time here is 21 hours ahead of LA. And if there's one thing I've practiced a lot over the last 6 years, it's adjusting to a -3 hour time difference. Piece of cake!

A friend of Kee-Min's who is currently living in New Zealand was kind enough to meet us at the airport, provide us with some hot chocolate, and bundle our luggage into her car. She and her husband have been showing us around the Auckland area, and we are already enamored with this fresh, green, beautiful country.

We have some great pics from this morning, but the only one I managed to snag on my camera was this one, of us playing "Models" in the Nood store. [Nood = (IKEA awesome * 0.8), at 1.5 times the price]

The really gorgeous, landscape and sites photos are on Kee-Min's pieces of technology. Obviously, we're still working out some of the kinks of this two-person-blogging thing! But stay tuned, we'll try to get them up soon.

But for now, I've gotta go. I'm busy falling in love with this country.

Airport Lounges Rock.

One of the perks of 6 years of cross-country dating/marriage is that we've accrued a LOT of frequent flier miles. The upshot of this is that we bought our "Round The World" itinerary with miles...and we splurged for the Business Class ticket. I was skeptical, but agreed - even though it brought my Mileage Plus account down to a measly 700 miles. My husband, however, is infinitely wise, and our upgraded ticket has already proven a winning idea for 2 reasons:

1. It took us ~ 5 minutes to check in (and about 2.5 of those minutes were spent wrangling our packs into their protective bags).

2. Access to the lounge and...FREE WIFI (and wine)!! So, you will get the 'packing post' tonight, after all! Everyone wins. [Although I'm still the one with the wine.]

So: packing. What do you pack for a trip that's 4 months long, will include climates ranging from tropical Singapore to Scandinavia in March (average daytime temp 30 F), and during which you will be attending a wedding, hiking/kayaking/camping, and perhaps participating in some professional development activites? Here are my choices:

I'm not that awesome with the camera yet, so to save yourself the eye strain, this includes:

7 days of undergarments

8 pairs of socks

Hat, gloves, scarf

4 tanks (base layers)

5 short sleeved shirts (base layers)

4 long-sleeved shirts (mid-layers)

3 warm layers (outer layers)

2 dresses

4 pairs of pants

1 pair of capris

1 pair of shorts

2 skorts

1 piece of running clothing for each temperature (tank, short-sleeved, jacket, shorts, capris, tights, calf sleeves)

I will also be taking a 3-in-1 jacket: fleece liner + waterproof shell, to be worn separately or together (not shown)

In general, I opted for items that all matched, layered well, and were made of technical fabric (cotton is rotten for sink washing/overnight drying, as well as running).

Kee-Min advised packing everything into ziplocks, with as much air removed as possible:

You would think we used a vacuum to remove the air from those bags, but no. I perfected a very special move so that I could do it all by myself. But I forgot to have Kee-Min photograph it, so you'll have to wait until we catch it while re-packing one day. We need something to keep you coming back! So, by not packing all that California air in my luggage, I was able to fit everything into my hiking backpack (this is what we'll be traveling with for most of our trip).

This packed bag also includes my shoes. Now, there's been some discussion about my "need" for 6 pairs of shoes. It's really quite simple. Here are the shoes I'm bringing:

from the upper left: 1.I'm a runner, so sneakers are non-negotiable. 2. Sturdy, warm walking shoes are also a must. 3. Casual sandals for NZ & Singapore. 4. Vibrams for hiking, kayaking, casual wear in warmer climes. 5. Red dress flats for wedding, professional situations, and Chinese New Year. 6. Flip flops. Because you never know when you may need to step into a sketchy shower.

I figure that, whenever we're flying, I'll be wearing either 1 or 2 (the bulkiest). Pairs 3- 6 smoosh down VERY flat, and I may abandon the sandals when we're finished in the warmer climes. Say what you will, but I am NOT ashamed of my choices! Overall, we're *quite* happy with our packing job.

And we're just a few minutes from boarding now. New Zealand, HERE WE COME!!!

Signing Off...

I have a great post (including pictures) about what we're packing, how we're packing it, and why I "need" 6 pairs of shoes. However, the modem goes into the storage unit in about 5 minutes, so there's no time right now. I'll write it on the plane, and I guess you'll just have to wait until we touch down in NZ to see it.

Don't fall of your chair in suspense. ;-)

Thanks for all the love and support so far, guys. See you from the road!!

The Travel Agency

The K-N Travel Agency temporarily moved their headquarters to the northern reaches of New Jersey for the holiday season (Thanks, Mom & Dad!):

Between visits with family and friends, gift exchanges, family game night, and plenty of good food, we were busily researching and booking transportation, accommodations, and adventures in New Zealand.

The verdict? Itinerary set. The second verdict? There's a reason people use travel agents. [We're glad we did things ourselves, but MAN did it take a lot of time!]

Also? He's not as tired as he looks. He is just working twice as hard, to do his part of the planning AND keep me calm as I worry, obsess, and over-think every minute detail of the trip. He is an infinitely patient man, and I'm an lucky woman.

47 hours

That's how long we have before we're on a plane taking off for Auckland, New Zealand, and more travel and vacation than either of us have ever done before. *gulp*

Alphabet soup

LAX - AKL
AKL - HKG
HKG - SIN
SIN - NRT
NRT - SIN
SIN - PNH
PNH - SIN
SIN - AHN
CPH - LHR
LHR - MUC
MUC - JFK