21 Feb The Journey Home

Alright so firstly I owe an apology to all those people who actually went to the trouble of reading our blog and were anticipating the blog to finish as well as it started. Today it is officially a week since I have landed in NZ so in true Riki rambled style I will blog my final blog and let you know how it all unravelled.....

Having had all the Argentine 'moms, aunts and female family friends' gather the night before to enjoy some empanadas and toasts me and the mamu finshed my last night with an ice-cream and some more perturbed sleep. I awoke and finished off my packing and ran the last of my errands.
Lunch was nice and quiet with Marcela and I avoiding the topic of my departure. Not long after a few of the girls came over and drank mate and before I knew it I was hugging and farewelling as it was time to take to the road. There were tears and promises of love and future encounters and me being me totally oblivious to what this all actually meant or to the incomprehendible reality that I was leaving....without a date of a return. As we drove through Areco and headed out on to the highway and in the direction of the airport it felt just like any other weekend that had come to an end with the ever-present certainty that this new 'home' would never, will never not be my home anymore.

About ten minutes on the road we of course get a flat tyre, my uncle Lalo changed that tyre so fast and got THE most impressive bead on in the process while I as per usual was re-reading my ticket and realised that the ticket said 11.59 this is at 5.30 in the afternoon. SO at this point thanks to my experience with flights and the 24 hour clock or rather my bad experience started to freak out...thinking that maybe I had gotten the time wrong despite my certainty about the flight timetables available to NZ. So while I am trying to phone with the one cell that still has credit, it too runs out and I am left mid-confirmation about the flight and stuck on a highway a tyre down. We sped to the nearest petrol station four tyres up and bought some credit and re-confirmed (I actually phoned 3 times to make sure) that my ticket was meaning midnight.
Arrived at the airport a good hour before I needed to and went in search of check-in. Just to put you all in the picture I have a trolley with a very big red suitcase (what later we were informed weighed 36kgs-4 MORE than is legally safe for people to lift) and by this point of the day had had all its handles broken off due to its weight, my backpack a mere 18 kgs and a roll on suitcase another mere 20kgs and one shoe-less foot thanks to my tendonitus.....DELIGHTFUL. Thankfully a very pretty young man came over and wheeled my stuff for me in the right direction. At the counter the man eyed me up rather surrepticiously and told me I was allowed 64 kilos and in fact should only have two check-in bags....and that there were no spare seats for my foot. I also had of course my handluggage which was a good extra 20 kilos and consisted of a big handbag and my laptop fitted into a bigger bag. At this point they were looking to fine me US$80.....

Someone was smiling upon me however because the other check-in guy volunteered another passengers un-used weight allowance for me and I checked in relieved for the moment atleast. After paying, despite grumbling, the US$18 departure tax...I said my farewells to Jo and Lalo and went through to the other side. Just as I arrived though I got a call from my ''cousin'' who had come all the way out in order to surprise me and was now unable to see me as I could not exit and she could not enter. The frustration and the tears got a bit much for me and I sobbed a wee while on my own and awaited and wondered what was to come next. Aerolineas thankfully having done everything imaginable to Beanie were on time and actually quite good to me. The flight, the food and the fourteen hours didn't bother me too much- thank goodness for sleeping pills!!!
Arriving in Auckland at 5am to 13 degrees was a fast and refreshing wake-up call.Thanks to the efficency and articulate service I found I had 6 hours before my connecting flight to QT. Between muffins and wake-up calls and lolly withdrawl recovery sessions I eventually got there. Quite fascinated by the fact that I was in fact back again and more importantly soooooo far away from something that was so familiar and had been for 15 months.
Flying into and over QT was every bit as beautiful as I remember it but there was nothing heart insipiring or home inspiring about seeing it. Mom and Dad awaited me as did the cold and the next week of madnessss....