Auckland afternoon.

Today I took a ten hour long bus ride almost all the way across the North Island. Generally, it wouldn't take 10 hours to drive this distance, but we stopped in every single small town in the countryside. And there are a whole lot of small towns in this part of the world.

Only two more nights until I catch the long flight home. Feeling a little anxious. I knew I would, so I left all of my Christmas shopping to the very last minute. Hopefully I'll be able to distract myself for the day. I get a little grumpy trying to find my way around places like LAX, one of the busiest airports in the world, after being squished into an airplane seat for 14 hours and missing a night's worth of sleep. Even after 3 hours on a plane I can be pretty out of it. I'll try to take a before and after picture for you, but not promises I'm posting it.

O! And I found a fantastic souvenier for myself! One of the local clothing chains made a series of locally-designed made-in-NZ organic cotton t-shirts with proceeds going to the Make a Wish NZ Foundation. And one of the designs just happens to be based on the work of Ernst Haeckel, the biologist and artist who drew the prints I used in the header of this blog. Luckily, I found one in my size in the Wellington store because there isn't a store here in Auckland. I almost waited too. Pictures to come, soon!