Seeing as my first day was "Day 0", Sam and Leen showed up on Day 1.

I had gone to bed early the night before, mostly because I wasn't nearly as recovered from the jet lag as I had initially thought, but also because I just like to sleep. So I was up in time to go with Brunnen-G to the airport to pick up Sam and Leen.

Just as clarification, and since two people have asked me already, we did not actually call her Brunnen-G while we were in New Zealand, although that name was used a few times. We called her by her real name, the same as we called her boyfriend Puck by *his* real name the whole time. I've now met a bunch of Rinkies in person, and I find it strange how for some of them it feels most natural to use their real name in person and some it feels most natural to use their Rinkname. For instance, at the RinkUnion, I pretty much called everyone by their real names except for Darien and Issachar. Issachar was easier to explain, since his name is also David and having two David's made it only natural that one of us would need a different name--and since Issachar already had a handy one--"Issachar"--it was settled very easily. Darien was a little different--there were no others with his name there, but it just didn't seem right to call him anything *but* "Darien." His own FIANCE called him Darien pretty much the whole time, and even admitted to slipping up and calling him Darien when not around other Rinkies. The guy just LOOKS like a Darien, even though I've never in my life ever met a person *actually* named Darien.

Brunnen-G and Puck, however, were different. It seemed much more natural to use their real names, so we did. In a strange turn of events, however, THEY called US by our Rinknames.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. Yes, I was actually up at the butt-crack of dawn in order to get to the airport to greet Sam and Leen. On the way I asked Brunnen-G if she was excited, and we had the conversation I related earlier. I still marvel at how easy it was for the four of us--none of us social butterflies of any extent by our own admission--were able to almost instantly become comfortable with one another to the extent that it was almost like we'd known each other our whole lives. Even more amazing was that it was only slightly harder, at least for me, to become comfortable around Puck--and he was someone neither Sam, Leen, nor I had ever had much contact with.

So we got to the airport a little early, and got to watch the board as planes arrived. We got to watch people arrive from other flights, and I got to feel a little bit of what she must have felt the day before, trying to spot me in the big crowd of Japanese tourists and Samoans and general touristy types coming off the planes. People would stand in front of the camera that was filming the arrivals area and broadcasting it up on the big video screen on the wall, so our view would be blocked. People would mill about in the entrance and block our view of people coming through customs. It was almost nerve-wracking for *me*, and I'd met Sam and Leen ages before and had been friends with them for years--I can't *imagine* how it was for BG.

We looked for purple. I told Brunnen-G "Leen might not be wearing purple--it's not like EVERYTHING she owns is purple." But Brunnen-G seemed convinced she'd see some purple--and she ended up being right.

I actually saw them first, coming out of the arrivals door. I pushed BG ahead of me, pointed them out, and let her go. Leen was indeed wearing something purple--a sweater of some sorts, if I remember correctly.

So ends the parts where Sam the great scribe was not present. From now on, I just hit the "good parts" as the subject line implies.

First, driving on the left. I'd already gotten to experience that for a day, which was why I insisted that either Sam or Leen had to ride in the front passenger seat to experience it on the way back. It's truly mind-bending at first, but I found myself getting used to it quickly--at least WHILE we were driving. Sitting at the end of a driveway, I always got scared when we started to pull into the left lane while getting onto the road. Roundabouts confused the HECK out of me--it's not like I have a lot of experience with them, but all the ones I'm used to go counter-clockwise, and unlike Sam, I had no prior experience with clockwise roundabouts to offset that. It FREAKED ME OUT everytime we went through one, which was often. And crossing the road took conscious effort--I think that, more than anything, would be the hardest thing for me to get used to. I think I'd actually get used to driving on the left far quicker than I'd get used to looking right then left rather than left then right while crossing a street.

Roadsigns were great. My favorite was easily the "!" sign, although that was followed closely by the sign Sam didn't mention, the white arrow pointing at about 7 o'clock on a blue circular sign. These were found usually close to the ground on islands in the middle of the road. They were basically pointing directly at the road in front of us. Our interpretation was "Drive On Road." I thought it was awesome that New Zealanders needed signs to remind them of this. "Oh, bugger, I've driven through the bush again."

My favorite one-shot sign, however, was the "Dogs Worrying Stock May Be Shot." I remember it said something like "stock" rather than "sheep" or "cows" because I remember thinking "Not only is that a weird way to word that, that's just a weird word to use period." It was an awesome sign all around.

The only other thing I find worth mentioning is about lunch on Day 1. I knew that the British call french fries "chips" and potato chips "crisps". We learned fairly quickly that New Zealanders use "chips" for both, thus forcing them to sort out in context which you are talking about. However, when we ordered lunch at the place by the beach, the woman asked me if I wanted "fries." I said yes, but realized later that she had called them "fries" rather than chips. This severely dissapointed me. I had been looking forward to hearing them called chips. I had come all this way, about 8000 miles (give or take a hectare) to hear people say "chips" when they meant "fries" and the first opportunity I get the woman hears my accent and talks down to me. BAH.

I'd talk a bit about Thunderbirds, except that it'd be an exercise in futility. As Brunnen-G herself said, you can't describe Thunderbirds to a person who has never seen the show--you just have to show them.

-- Dave

P.S. Nuclear explosions are cooler.