From 30,000 feet

This day has snuck up on us quite quickly from the several weeks ago that the plan was set in motion. We have departed on a 3.5 week holiday. It will be the first time we'll be catching up with most family and friends since March 2012!

For all the travelling we've done, it feels like there's been too long a pause and I have actually been nervous about making sure we get everything sorted. We're now onto our long-haul leg so all things have gone smoothly - of course they would! I was 3 kg over so we had to do a quick rearrange of luggage but that's the only hiccup. Although the entertainment system on the flight has had to be shutdown and rebooted so fingers crossed it comes back to entertain us!

This trip will be so interesting. We both feel like there will be an element of culture shock and of those moments where we just feel like outsiders a bit. A few people have asked whether we'll sell our return flights or whether we'll be hesitant to leave - but to be honest neither of us harbour thoughts of returning to live to Vancouver anytime soon. I think leaving New Plymouth really shows us how much we've come to love our new town.

We will be missing out on the biggest weekend of the year in New Plymouth - the All Blacks are in town to play France on the 22nd. This comes complete with street parties and events and meet and greets and excitement. We will be experiencing our own exciting events but we still hope to be able to catch the game at least! We didn't go so far as to greet the players at the airport but they were making the rounds and visited a friend's workplace for photos! How cool.

But our trip is to celebrate two weddings and to get in some quality time with friends and family. And then we get to do some exciting housekeeping things like sort out paperwork and figure out what to ship back to NZ. We did still leave a wall of stuff in Lena's garage that we now want to be reunited with. So figuring out if sea or air is better and then getting it all packed and ready to ship will take a fair few hours...

We just bought a van though so at least we'll have a vehicle that's better suited to picking it up from Auckland or Wellington! Dustin has been checking out van listings for a while now - that's what the tradies here use as pick-up trucks just aren't as popular - and over the weekend a good option came up that we didn't want to miss. The exciting thing is that we were able to get both the van and the station wagon in the garage while we're away! haha. Now if finding that exciting is not a sign of ageing, I don't know what is.

It's going to be weird and good to reconnect with everyone. With an absence of more than a year you really get a sense of how much things change in life - with people and places and how you click with everyone. Most people we've at least had one skype catch up in that time but there are a few we haven't even done that much with!

This flight is full of people with Canadian accents and I just overheard one advising people to check out Boston Pizza as a do-not-miss place when they visit. Oh dear. Definitely not on our list of places to hit up!

One thing we are set on is having sushi and lots of it! Some Greek food and also proper Chinese food a la Hons. But other than that we don't have too many things we really miss that we must do.

The meal carts are out and the turbulence is increasing so I will sign off and when you read this we will be in town!

Time to settle in for a movie or two and hopefully some sleep.

Catch you in Canada!