A quick breather before Auckland

Got back from a great weekend in the Blue Mountains Sunday night, which went pretty much as expected: good company, good scenery, good food, good pseudo Fourth of July celebration.* We didn't even have to leave the cabin until late in the afternoon, which made for a true, full weekend.**

*In fact, when it came to preparations for the Fourth, and after all my hand-wringing over what to do to commemorate the day, I was out-Americanized by some of my friends, who brought sparklers, American candy (Reese's Pieces and Tootsie Rolls) and photos of Americana to hang on the walls. Me? I brought up a case of Bud and my Mom's recipe for apple pie. Never ended up actually making the pie, though.

**Always hated how you have to check out of a hotel at 10am on a Sunday. I mean, Sunday IS part of the weekend, right? And in many circles, it's commonly known as God's day of rest, right??!? Yet they essentially cut the day out of the weekend and disturb our rest by forcing us out of bed at freaking 10 in the morning!!!

Went to work yesterday and am off to the airport in 35 minutes to spend the rest of the week in Auckland!

What am I doing in Auckland?? Yeah, besides settling all my visa issues, I still don't really know. Would love to just get out and about and explore, maybe take a day trip or two out of the city, but it's supposed to rain for most of the next few days, which generally makes said exploration not so fun. But I'm not exactly in New Zealand too often, so I guess I kinda have to do it, regardless of how wet or cold it is.

May try to do a post or two on here while I'm over there, but we'll see. When it comes to traveling and blogging, I don't have the best track record.