x=28 hours

That's right. In a mere 28 hours, I will be on my way to New Zealand. Observe:

For me, the trip continues tomorrow. I'm back at school, after a 2-hour flight from DIA (I'm just considering this an extra-long layover). Tomorrow, we leave around 1:30 for Chicago, and then we'll fly to LAX before departing on a 12-hour 45-minute flight for Auckland, where we'll land on the 13th of May, local time.

We'll be in Auckland for two days, and then on the 15th, we have a 12-hour train ride to Wellington (on the southern tip), and then head out to Masterton on the next day (north and a little east from Wellington). From there, we'll be taking day trips (yes, I'll be hiking--10-15 miles a day, even).

On the 28th, we'll head back to Wellington for two days, and then from the 30th-2nd, we're on our own. We have nothing planned or scheduled, and it's up to the eight of us to decide what we want to do. The only requirement is that we be back in Auckland on the evening of the 3rd, and then, after another two days there, we'll fly back.

I can't wait.

I'm currently, for the class, reading The Bone People by Keri Hulme, a Maori writer. I particularly like this passage in the beginning:

"She had debated, in the frivolity of the beginning, whether to build a hole or a tower; a hole, because she was fond of hobbits, or a tower -- well, a tower for many reasons, but chiefly because she liked spiral stairways.

"As time went on, and she thought over the pros and cons of each, the idea of a tower became increasingly exciting; a star-gazing platform on the top; a quiet library, book-lined, with a ring of swords on the nether wall; a bedroom, mediaeval style, with massive roof-beams and a plain hewn bed; there'd be a living room with a huge fireplace, and rows of spicejars on one wall, and underneath, on the ground level, an entrance hall hung with tapestries, and the beginnings of the spiral stairway, handrails dolphin-headed, saluting the air."

m.