Thousands of words

We have safely arrived in New Zealand, after an exhausting, 30 1/2 hour door-to-door travel marathon that took us from Honolulu to Seoul (9 1/2 hours), Seoul to Sydney (10 1/2 hours) and Sydney to Auckland (a speedy 2 1/2 hours), padded with layovers and bookended by bus rides.

Thankfully, we had some of the best airline hospitality we've ever experienced, first thanks to Korean Air (whose airborne service is only rivaled by the amazingly humane Incheon International Airport, just outside of Seoul) and second, thanks to Emirates Air (whose great onboard service was only slightly tarnished by a surly Aussie gate agent, who repeatedly scolded us for not having a document that was never provided to us throughout these transfers).

The comforts of the travel (our first and third legs, we might as well have been at an all-you-can-watch movie buffet, the personal A/V options were so staggeringly rich and diverting) were marred slightly when my checked luggage -- the backpack with my clothes, camping gear and various sundries -- failed to arrive with us in New Zealand. That gave us our first taste of Kiwi hospitality, however, as the folks responsible for such things leaped into action, conveying competence and inspiring confidence. And, sure enough, my pack is scheduled to arrive at our hostel later this afternoon. Fingers crossed. No worries, mate. Right?

Confidence and competence collided in a less fortunate fashion this morning, however. In my zeal to prepare my cell phone for use in New Zealand, a process that requires a bit of... technical persuasion, I ended up losing all of the photos we've taken over the past two weeks. Most everything in Hawai'i (save a few that had already been posted or otherwise accessible), our last days in Anchorage and the pics documenting our increasing loopiness as the hours of travel to New Zealand wore on. (I am particularly saddened to lose the photo Julie staged of me, feigning mouth-open sleep, with a sticker reading "Wake for Meals" plastered on my forehead instead of the seat-back.)

I'm sorry you won't get to see the lava we saw flowing into the ocean on the Big Island, more views from Mauna Kea, the signs warning us not to travel various paths we traveled, our walks on various lava flows and through the Thurston lava tube, as well as our campsites along the way, under towering eucalyptus in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, or at land's end at the county campground our last night on the Big Island, so close that the curling waves felt like they might give the tent a surfing lesson at any moment. You'll also miss the signs offering friendly warnings of falling coconuts or faulty septic systems.

There were lots of moments, in fact, we'd captured with these lost pics. I'm especially sorry to have lost a number of photos that I know Julie was looking forward to keeping, and using in various future posts. Sorry, darling, and sorry, too, dear reader. Of course, many of these images still exist, for now at least, between our ears, where they are harder to share and much more susceptible to erosion. Hopefully, we'll find words to compensate.

Our bodies are still catching up to finding ourselves living nearly a full day into the future from home (thanks to the wonders of the International Date Line), and getting to know this amazing place. We'll have to post some new photos soon, eh?