It’s a new year with new adventures dead ahead

Lisa and I leave for New Zealand in March just days after my 73rd birthday for two glorious weeks. WOO HOO!

 

Jackie and her family will be holding down the fort here at my place.  Jackie will be caring for our twelve chickens and two goats and my 55-gallon aquarium and cats in my absence.

 

These livestock chores will be a first for her.  I’ve been caring for her critters for 15 years (usually) whenever she travels.  I haven’t ever–  in my entire life–had a two- week-long vacation, so this is a first (and very likely a last) for me, and I plan to make the most of it.

 

Lisa has a housesitter for her place, too, so her place will remain secure and her cat will be cared for and snuggled with.  (Alas, my cats won’t be snuggled with because Jackie is allergic to cats. That’s going to cause some loud consternation from Patches, I’m sure.)

 

We’re staying with dear friends in Auckland  

 

Remember Helen Schofield from her visit to stay with me for two weeks a couple of years ago?

Here are reminder images…

 

Yours truly and Helen  in Winthrop, WA 2022

Lisa Twining and Helen in Winthop, WA 2022

Lisa, Kris and Helen at Northwest Trek, 2022

 

Helen, her husband Mark, and Helen’s best friend Deborah Davies will be our hosts. Deborah will be our driver (plus tour guide in one location where, in the past, she worked and portrayed an Irish immigrant to early NZ!) chiefly because Helen doesn’t drive and there is no way Lisa or I intend to try to learn how to drive on the left side of the road on the fly! We don’t want to die in NZ!

 

VERY SLIGHT KARL URBAN POSSIBILITY

 

I have an email in to Karl Urban’s agent in NZ because, according to a mutual OZ friend, he has wanted to reconnect with me.   I very much doubt we’ll be lucky enough to be in Auckland at the same time he is (he’s a very busy actor and usually in LA), but if he is and if he does want to reconnect during his rare time off, I have given his agent my friend’s contact info (and mine) so he can reach out during the time we’ll be there. I have lost 45 pounds, had my chest masculinized, and a panniculectomy  since he met us five years ago at the Comic Con in Seattle, so he probably won’t even recognize me, so I gave his agent a heads up about that.

 

Here is what I looked like in 2018. Lisa has lost 30 pounds too, since then, so it would be super nice to get another, updated photo taken with him again.

 

But again, it’s a very long shot! Pie-in-the-sky, “if wishes were fishes” sort of thing. It will be a sweet, sweet surprise if it happens!  I’m NOT expecting it to.

Our for sure adventures while in NZ include a mud bath for at least Helen and me, a trip to Peter Jackson’s Auckland Weta Workshop, a trip to Hobbiton, and several trips to Helen’s and Deborah’s favorite Auckland-area beaches.  We won’t get very far south because part of the vacation is also to relax, rest, rejuvenate and veg, so we’ll be staying quite local.  We’ll visit a couple zoos to see NZ-based wildlife up close and personal, and Helen promises to find us a weta (a grasshopper-like insect that looks to be about a hundred times the size of a Pacific NW grasshopper), but it won’t be this big; it will be another species that is still large enough to be heard readily as it chews and walks around her yard:

Yes, we will take pictures of us holding a weta— and lots of other pix, too!

 

I’m already packed! I wanted to make sure I could get everything in one approved-size suitcase and one gym bag, including the goodies I’m bringing for Helen and Deborah. I can, easy peasy.  And after Helen and Deborah get their goodies, that space will be freed up so I can take a few NZ souvenirs back, if I see any I don’t think I can live without.

 

(With a potential pre-planned move to Costa Rica, I don’t want to take more than what’s absolutely necessary there, so any souvenirs I see have to pass the “will I take it to CR when/if I move?” test before I’ll bring it back with me. I want to move to CR with fewer than two or three suitcases plus my computer, monitor, and other working world necessities, hence the reason I’m still looking for homes for the De clothing and Trek paraphernalia that I still have six bins of! If you’re interested in what I have left, reach out to me at krisATwordwhisperer.net, and do it sooner rather than later!!! I will be posting what I have within a week or so at yellowballoonpublications.com along with minimum prices for each item.)

 

PLEASE NOTE:  I cannot ship overseas unless the recipient agrees to pay my shipping costs and possibly additional customs fees at their end. The shipping rates are too damned expensive. I just sent a box to Germany and it cost me $92.75 and may cost the recipient $89.14 in customs fees. That’s insane!

 

That’s all the news that’s fit to print for this time. Hope you’re enjoying your day!