My next-to-last day, on top of all the other days in this three-week adventure, really seemed to tire me out. After dinner, I rested and took a nap before I got up after midnight to reconfigure all my stuff and pack for the trip home.

But it all worked. I left out only my camera to take a last few pictures because the trip wasn’t quite done yet! We had some driving and then a morning hike along a beach and ridge before we headed for the last push to Auckland.

The beach hike was at Mangawhai Heads. We got here relatively early, before the crowds came in, so Lina found a good parking spot for Ed. Or rather, a few parking spots since she had to span a few to find room for him. Later in the day, this would cause at least one person to comment about hogging spaces, but early on there was plenty of room.

At this beach, they’re doing dune restoration in several phases–nice to see. Beach habitat is kind of like high-elevation tundra; things grow very slowly. The path down was clearly marked, so we trudged through the soft sand to the water’s edge and then turned left to tramp over some rocks to the beach beyond.

Halfway through the rocks, I called a halt for myself. It was pretty warm and the wind was carrying salt spray persistently onto shore. Knowing I wouldn’t have another chance to shower and get cleaned up for over 24 hours, I decided not to get uncomfortable for the start of my travel day.

Instead, I found a comfortable place among the rocks to sit for a while and just observe. It was wonderful (fascinating, even) to watch the water play over the rocks, and just sitting there let me spend more time picking out details it would be easy to miss just passing by. I got some good rock, sand, and water shots.

When I headed back up the beach, I discovered that a surfing competition had started and lots of people had gathered to watch. While I was there, a bird landed close, so I snapped a quick picture, which turns out to be the last one of this trip. Iconic, since we’ve seen so many of these fellows along the way.

There was an enterprising fellow with a stone pizza oven in the back of a trailer who was cooking pizzas to sell (smelled good!), and further up the hill, someone else was selling coffee and sorbet. I partook of a hot chocolate while I sat at a picnic table and chilled.

Eventually the rest of the group arrived. Lina had pre-made lunch for us all, so we had pasta salad and then packed up to get on the road again.

It was a couple of hours to Auckland where we dropped the other six folks for their “free day in Auckland” before they would be picked up for the second week of their Kauri tour.

With them settled, Lina and I headed for the airport. I spent most of the drive changing into my travel clothes and doing a final pack of my luggage so I’d have the right stuff separated between my checked bag and the bags I’d carry.

Then we were there and I was on my way alone. I got the bag checked and was happy to have it out of my hands, but was still hauling quite a load. The principal weight was because of the camera bag, where I was also carrying my computer equipment.

So here’s the place for my “lesson learned” about travel and photographs. I won’t make the mistake again of taking too much camera equipment. If the trip isn’t focused on photography, or doesn’t include a lot of time to set up and use all the equipment, it just isn’t worth hauling all that stuff around. Of all the things I packed and took, I used most everything–except for the camera equipment! I’m glad I had the good camera to get some of the pictures, and I’d carry that again (though I plan to look into a smaller, mirrorless camera with the same capabilities), for the blog pictures, the iPhone was really sufficient most of the time. A lot of the backup or fancy stuff (external flash, tripod), was just extra weight and inconvenience.

So, that lesson pondered, I wandered the Auckland airport for several hours. I had arrived about 5:30 PM and my flight didn’t depart until about 11:00. I did the normal things you do at an airport to pass the time, but my walking around was limited by the weight I was still carrying.

Eventually the time came to board. The flight back on Air New Zealand was great, if long. Same drill as on the first flight here. Great console with all kinds of entertainment options. On this flight, I watched two movies (Brooklyn, the Dressmaker) and had dinner. Then I got some sleep (love my travel-collar), woke up and watched another movie (the Intern), then we arrived. This was only a 12-hour flight to Los Angeles (instead of the 15 hours from Houston to Auckland).

At LAX, there was the usual follow-the-mass-of-humanity drill as we went through the customs and border patrol stations. Then we picked up all of our checked bags (even though they were checked through to a final destination) so we could drop them off at the correct airline’s domestic luggage belt.

So far, so good. Then I walked out the door and found myself curbside at the airport, with no clue as to where to go next. The last time I went through the LA airport, there was lots of construction so I didn’t have any clear concept of the layout of the airport. I just stood at the curb, which is where people were getting picked up, and wondered where to go.

I didn’t see any helpful signs or other hints, so eventually I just turned around and looked back towards the building. Then I saw a sign that said “airport shuttle” and headed off in that direction. Never saw an airport shuttle location or anything that looked like an aiport shuttle itself, but I finally ran into a sky-cap who was checking baggage for people getting out of cars. He was very helpful. Turns out I was headed in the right direction, but I was at terminal 1 and my airline was at the last terminal, number 7.

Having no idea how long a walk that was, I just kept going. It was a long walk. Not unmanageable, but did I mention I was carrying a lot of weight? And I’d been travelling for many hours now? What a mess.

When I got to terminal 7, I had to go through security once again, but then I was soon at the gate. The good news is that becuase it had taken me so long to go through all the rigamarole to this point, I only had about a half-hour of my several-hour layover to wait until boarding the plane. Whew!

I confirmed with my friend and savior Denise that she was going to be able to pick me up at DFW (bless you!), and after a relatively uneventful three-hour flight, was back on home turf. The day that I’d lost at the beginning of trip I made up on the way back, so I arrived on the same day I’d left. 🙂

Denise delivered me to my doorstep and I was home. Time to pick up the threads of my life, but for now, I’m feeling half in New Zealand and half in Fort Worth. It’ll be interesting to see what memories settle out over the next weeks, but for now, I’m just basking in what a great experience it’s been!