Essential Documentation

'Aotearoa' means "Land of the Long White Cloud". And that's a map in the middle. Why did I go to Barnes and Noble and buy a map today? Because we have 'hired' a car for our first day in New Zealand. A car that has the steering wheel on the right and a manual transmission. A car, suprisingly enough, that has the same name as the one I drive here at home--Toyota Corrolla. (I'm sure nothing could be further from MY car!) The gear shift is also located on the right--BETWEEN the driver and door. I can't imagine how that will work. I hope there's a parking lot to learn in before we head out on the highway! Dad thinks it will be an enormous adventure. Ben wants photos of the inside of the car. (I will probably take videos too.) And pictures of road signs and cars coming at us on the WRONG SIDE! Heck, I'm not wild about driving on THIS side, I don't know why they want to drive on THAT side!

We're going to go down to Hamilton, where the LDS temple is located. We want to see it. And take pictures along the way and just enjoy the drive. Or not....

On the left is our cruise documentation. I love that blue folder. I always do a happy dance when it arrives. It has our boarding passes and cruise tickets for the ship, as well as Shore Excursion and Private Tour information. I just junked most of the stuff Holland America sent us and put my own stuff in there.

On the right is my indispensible little pink book. After our last cruise, I got that notebook out of the cupboard and started a list for the next cruise. (Optimistic, wasn't I?)

I made notes like:

Mark baggies with what is in them. (To make packing at the end easier.)

Bring a list of movies we'd like to watch. (Not applicable this trip as I doubt we'll have any conscious time to watch anything, but last time we stood in the library flipping through the list of everything available, trying to remember what we wanted to see--which was A LOT since we hardly go to the movies any more.)

Keep a list of souvenirs we buy in each port. (This is to facilitate the Custom's Declaration we have to fill in before reentering the United States and helps avoid the whole "Honey, what did we buy in Aruba?" "I dunno, don't you know?" conversation.)

But since we booked this trip fourteen months ago, I've also kept track of suitcase sizes/weights (a real problem on Qantas and a subject that needs it's very own post).

And average tempatures of the ports we will visit. (So I know what to pack...or not.)

And ideas for unique items to buy as souvenirs. (Possum socks! No kidding.)

And how far from the airports to our hotels in Auckland and Sydney.

And phone numbers.

And...most of all...packing lists. I have never made a packing list for a cruise. I always just make it up as I go along, but now that I'm getting...er...older, I find I forget stuff. So now I'm making a list I can use in the future so I never have to be this obsessive again. Although, I probably will be anyway, but I can focus on other things than packing...maybe.