Kiwi Land

I know, I know, it’s the Kiwi bird, not the Kiwi fruit, but these were much easier to find.

Andy and I just touched down in New Zealand, where we will be spending the next 4.5 weeks on honeymoon.  Our plans are pretty loose, but I’m pretty optimistic that it will be a month full of fun and adventure!

In fact, before we even left The States, we had our first tidbit of excitement, with a couple of star sightings in LAX.  Jessica Simpson, surrounded by a herd of paparazzi waltzed by us onto the elevator.  Moments later, Tyra Banks was escorted through the security line and was positioned in directly behind us.  I was briefly considered asking for a picture with her, but I’ve seen her brandish those claws on Next Top Model.  Plus, I was busy making their entourage wait while I chugged the water bottle I forgot to dump.

We are staying the night with one of our friends, Fos, who played soccer with Andy at Stanford.  Actually, his real first name is Gerard, but in the nearly 10 years I’ve known him, I’ve never once heard him called that.  Apparently, it was the tradition on the soccer team to “take the piss out of” (that’s Kiwi or Aussie for “tease”) the New Zealander players by giving them Australian nicknames. Fos is short for Foster’s–”Australian for Beer”.  Later in the month, we will be meeting up with Syd–short for Sydney–for New Year’s.

A pic from our first New Zealand run. . .more of a jog, really, which is exactly what I was looking for after 15 hours of flying.    Here, the greenest greens from the grass and trees are sandwiched between the bluest blues of the sky and water.  That pesky little hole in the ozone problem, while not great for the global warming issue, or one’s skin, for that matter, does at least make for some beautiful weather.