“Aotearoa,” he said, “means land of the long white cloud.”

“Oh, ha, couldn’t tell…” I said, with a wink. I couldn’t help the sarcasm, it’s just what I do.

This was about thirteen hours after I had spent nine hours running around finishing up a bunch of last minute tasks and having almost been killed several times from crazy L.A. drivers. My chores included getting cat litter at 7 am, driving to parents house, visiting my grandma to make sure her Christmas letter was set, making sure I had some New Zealand dollars (which didn’t happen till I got to the airport), giving Mom and Dad the info they needed on where I’d be, eating something – which I hadn’t done in a day (maybe two), printing ticket (which didn’t work), and making sure my friend, Tiffany, could pick me up on time. Basically by 6 pm, I couldn’t wait any longer to get away from the city. Of course, life had other plans.

I hate LAX. Worst airport ever. Turns out that even though an airline gives you a mobile ticket to use, it doesn’t actually get used. Madness! They also don’t have kiosks to just print – well, Air New Zealand didn’t but I know Southwest does. This is why I get to airports four hours before my flight- people call me crazy, but I have my reasons! Where was I? Oh, right. I arrived at six or so, said my goodbyes to Tiff, and after about 40 minutes of waiting in line for an empty check in counter, then another 20 for security, I walked through a nearly empty airport.

If you’re looking for a good airplane book, I recommend “The Great Gatsby” (sorry, Mom, it won’t let me underline it). Sometimes I read Tolkien, or Moore, but I felt Fitzgerald was a good choice this time. I won’t lie, I also didn’t want to appear like the only reason I was going to New Zealand was for LOTR and the Hobbit – those are just bonus reasons. Though, once I saw the preflight safety video, I realized it probably wouldn’t have mattered. An Unexpected Journey is right because you haven’t lived until you’ve seen this video, and not to give spoilers, but, we say hi to some old friends. I was also on the plane with Smaug painted on it, and 12 hours later I would see “Middle of Middle Earth” in LOTR script on the side of the Wellington airport. I would also see gigantic hawks, and Gollum hanging from the ceiling. I don’t think they’re using the movies for tourism at all, do you ?

Skipping ahead, I realized as I sat down in my two-person row window seat and explored the tv screen that I shouldn’t have worried about trying to find my iPod the day before nor the fact that somehow the battery had died during the day. I had MULTIPLE entertainment options, including a USB port for my iPod, movies, radio, games, and etc on the plastic floatation device in front of me. I proceeded to choose my playlist:

1. Caddyshack
2. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
3. Singing in the Rain
4. Beetlegeuse
5. Superman (Christopher Reeve)
6. The Shawshank Redemption

Playlist set, now it was time to await take off.

During take off I have this, sentimental and traditional routine. It’s personal, so I won’t be sharing too much about it. The only people who might understand are my Mom, Dad, Aunt Kerry, and Grandma. They know I love flying but they don’t know that I always ask a very important person to keep me safe and to fly with me.

As I sat there reading about Nick’s experiences meeting Daisy, Tom, and Myrtle, it was finally hitting me that I was leaving the country. Since I hadn’t done that since I was two or three, and since that was Canada, this was a crazy realization. I had no idea what I was going to do but I hoped I’d figure that out when I got there. I was also wishing some of my friends could have joined me, and decided I’d make sure to do some things that they would do, even if I wouldn’t normally do them myself.

Take off came, and through the playlist I went. In and out of sleep, but not really sleeping. I remember towards the end of the flight I dreamt about choking on a string and woke up coughing. I have some of the weirdest dreams. Because of my awkward sleeping phases, I missed parts of the movies but I remember thinking that Marilyn Monroe had quite the figure, how young Winona Ryder was, and how oddly handsome Christopher Reeve was back in the day. I also realized I don’t need headphones to watch any of the movies as I seem to know them all by heart. I had curled up in the blanket that was on my seat when I first got on, and I don’t think I’ve ever more thankful that I was a short. I can stretch fully and not hit anyone – and no I couldn’t put my suitcase in the over head storage bin by myself and no I didn’t try to sleep in the overhead storage bin either.

I’m skipping most of flight because it was so long and uninteresting. Breakfast came – as I write that I realize I skipped mentioning dinner, which there was a vegetarian option and somehow my fork had gone missing in the middle of it. It’s really hard to cut eggplant with a spoon, just in case you were wondering. Also, beef and chicken grotesquely stink up an airplane and I almost got sick from the smell. Okay – back to breakfast. Fruit and a muffin, so exciting I know, but this was when I could see nothing but clouds, and when I finally had a mini conversation with my seat partner. Neither of us had gotten up the whole flight and when he finally did I decided to snag that opportunity too.

I never got his name, so I call him ” man in the clouds “. He had rumpled clothing, and dirty hair which reminded me of the dirty beach hippies I grew up with. He might have been late 20’s, or mid 30’s, it was difficult to guess. He visits the states often, but is from New Zealand – heeelllloooo accent! Accents everywhere, including the choir that broke into ” Happy Birthday ” when we were later waiting to disembark the plane. I especially enjoyed listening to the two gentlemen behind me talk ( in accents ) about the lack of green in Los Angeles and the New Zealand green that you don’t get anywhere else. They also talked about the clouds and made ” weeeeee ” noises during our descent into the big white cloud layer. I was in good company.

Returning to my dirty hippie friend. He was nice, vegetarian as well (weeeeeee) and didn’t snore – not that it’d have mattered because I’m such a light sleeper anyway. I woke up to every bit of turbulence there was and there was A LOT. He seemed flattered when I said this was my first trip to another country. He was also considerate to pull my bag down for me when we landed and I hadn’t even planned on asking – I was just going to climb on the seat like I always do.

” You’ll be here for Christmas, then? ” he asked.

” Ya, going home the 26th.”

“That’s too bad, you should try to stay longer, you’re going to love it.” He said, smirking.

” Ya, I can see that already from the clouds. ” I agreed with a small chuckle. “How’d you say that word again?”

“Aotearoa” he repeated.

” I’m never gonna be able to say that…”