The Month of Fun from Day 1

Jill typing...So I've worked a grand total of 8 days this month. Kenny, with two orthodontist appointments this month, has only worked 6. Not bad, especially considering I've managed to use only 5 vacation days and 1 sick day (honestly, too)! As mentioned in prior blog entries, we got to spend ten amazing days in New Zealand and then made our way to Utah for Thanksgiving with the fam. Kenny was a bit overwhelmed by all the pictures, so he started a flickr account. I'll post some here, but if you're really interested you can view the rest here: (Kenny to fill in).

So to begin with New Zealand: Day 1. total distance traveled: 11,400 miles.

For reference purposes...

We left Thursday, Nov. 8 at 9pm. 13 hours and 10,450 miles later we landed in Aukland (on the North Island) on Saturday, November 10 at 7am. While waiting for our next flight that would take us to Queenstown (another 900 miles south), we enjoyed the free food and comfortable chairs in the airport lounge thanks to some new friends, the Cowies. (Kiwis are honestly some of the nicest people I've ever met.) Well, our flight was delayed for three hours, so after a free lunch at the airport, another two hour flight and a quick drive (on the wrong side of the road) to town, we were finally there and ready to start our vacation.

Our view of The Remarkables (part of the Southern Alps) as we flew into Queenstown

Kenny was a fabulous chauffeur the whole time and managed to stay on the correct side of the road all but one time. Budget Rental Cars was ready for us and had plastered the car with these great stickers to help him remember to "Keep Left."

We had the best view of the Remarkables from our hotel room right on Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown.


After traveling for almost 20 hours, we were understandably a bit tired and, as a result, had a mix up with our hotel room. We were booked in 702A, but Kenny went to room 702. For some reason the key worked, and I didn't notice we had entered the wrong room. Room 702 turned out to be a corner suite at least twice as big as our apartment complete with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, fireplace and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake. After flying coach, we were like fat kids in a candy shop. It was a dream come true.

We started a fire, kicked back, and fell asleep (with every intention of getting up for dinner, which didn't happen; we were out for the night). The next day we realized we had been in the wrong room. Room 702A was nice enough, but just an average hotel room. Oh well; we were royalty for at least one night!