We arrive
in Pahrump in the evening of September 13, four days shy of our flight to
New Zealand! We still have tons of stuff to do before we leave: find storage
for the bus and the jeep, finish packing, and figure out a way to get to the
airport.
We park
the bus for the night at the local Wal Mart, then spend the evening checking
out several storage lots around Pahrump. At least a couple of them are cheap
enough and look secure enough to leave "our home" there for 7 months.
The next
morning, we move into a small and quiet RV park at the edge of town. We normally
never use RV parks (very unpleasant and WAY too expensive) but we need a convenient
place to work on packing and other preparations. We spend the next days going
through all the gear we're planning to take with us, weighing everything,
and trying to figure out a way to get everything into our 4 packs, while staying
within the weight allowance. Very time consuming, but we manage to get it
all in. Each one of our four packs weighs almost exactly 50 lbs...
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The
quiet RV park where we spent a few days....
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...packing,
unpacking, and re-packing for NZ and Oz.
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Weighing
everything to the ounce, trying to stay under airline allowances.
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Red
Rocks will have to wait until the spring...
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Driving
through Vegas en route to the airport.
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September
18: After thoroughly winterizing the bus, we drive it and the jeep to the
storage lot we've selected, and where they'll stay until we return in the
spring. We then drive to the airport - one hour away - in our one-way rental
car. Fortunately, we've given ourselves plenty of time and get to the airport
very early. Somehow, a glitch between Air NZ and United has prevented our
tickets from being confirmed on United's computer system. Don't ask! We spend
the next 3 hours at the check-in counter. Our blood is boiling! They finally
resolve the issue at the last minute, with just enough time left to run to
the plane. Aah, the joys of air travel!
Anyway…
we're on the flight now and trying to relax. Quick hop to Los Angeles, followed
by a 12-hour flight to Auckland. Very good seats (carefully selected months
ahead of time), and good on-demand, in-flight entertainment make things go
quickly.
September
19: We cross the international date line… so this day never happened!
September
20: We land in Auckland at 5:30AM. It didn't seem as long as we feared. All
the luggage is here too! Uneventful trip through immigration and customs (though
their agricultural inspectors have us undo one of our backpacks to inspect
the tent and hiking boots). We have arrived!
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Lugging
our gear into Las Vegas airport.
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Our
plane to Auckland.
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Crossing
the international date line.
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We're
there!
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