{"id":13234,"date":"2024-06-02T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/?p=13234"},"modified":"2024-06-04T11:42:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T23:42:00","slug":"back-to-life-back-to-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/02\/back-to-life-back-to-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Life. Back to Reality!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 2<\/p>\n\n\n

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Kia Ora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our plane home from NZ did not divert to Siberia nor did we decide to go for an impromptu side trip to Tahiti, much to Mitch\u2019s disappointment. Our reason for the delay in sending this last blog is we\u2019ve simply been sucked back into our humdrum, ordinary American lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been home almost two weeks and we\u2019re finally feeling like we\u2019ve beaten the jet lag. It was long and ugly and we spent way too many nights staring at the ceiling, tossing and turning, desperately trying and miserably failing to fall asleep. Just as the sun was starting to rise, we fell into our deepest sleep and awoke several hours later to a late morning start to our day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lest you all think we\u2019re not happy to be home, we definitely are. It\u2019s been wonderful to see our family and friends and also our fur baby, who, initially confused at our reemergence into his space, has re-embraced us as his favorite people and has not left our sides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bandit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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We thought it would be fun to add up all the miles we drove around NZ and it\u2019s more than 6,300 (10,000+ kilometers)! That\u2019s like driving from NY to San Francisco and back again. The 6,300 were the miles we drove on our own and don\u2019t even include the tour bus miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We plotted out on the map our general itinerary and looking at it this way, it\u2019s hard to believe we covered so much ground. Even so, there\u2019s still so much we didn\u2019t see!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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6300+ miles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Our trip was far more than a bucket list item checked off. I cannot simply put a check mark next to NZ and move on to the next destination. That would minimize my time there, my experiences, my connections to the land and my new found friendships. NZ is a country that embraced me and stole my heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s the moral of the blog, the gist from 120 days of our adventures? If you\u2019ve been wanting to travel somewhere, just do it. Stop dreaming and start planning. We promise you won\u2019t regret it and we hope we’re one of the first people to hear all about how it changed your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ka Kite Ano (Goodbye) and thanks for reading about our NZ adventures!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victoria and Mitch <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lake Pukaki near Mt Cook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 2 Kia Ora. Our plane home from NZ did not divert to Siberia nor did we decide to go for an impromptu side trip to Tahiti, much to Mitch\u2019s disappointment. Our reason for the delay in sending this last blog is we\u2019ve simply been sucked back into our humdrum, ordinary American lives. We\u2019ve been … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-new-zealand-north-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/myblogary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/backtolife.jpg?fit=479%2C346&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5,"url":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/20\/exploring-the-wonders-of-new-zealand-a-travel-diary\/","url_meta":{"origin":13234,"position":0},"title":"My New Zealand Blogary","author":"Victoria","date":"20 January 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"January 20 Hello! Or soon to be, Kia Ora! Welcome to my New Zealand Blogary, a cross between a blog and a diary. 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We will be hiking 42 miles over 4 days in the Marlborough Sounds. 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