New And Improved Zealand: Now With 3% More Zealand

Well, luck wasn’t with me at the airport. The problem wasn’t flying home without a passport. The problem was flying an itinerary that sent me through Vancouver and not an American point of entry. I have it on good authority—the Canadian embassy itself—that Canadia will not allow an American passenger to set foot in the country without a physical passport, and that I won’t face the same problem when I attempt to fly to Dallas/Fort Worth on Thursday.

The Coromandel Peninsula, which I had very much hoped to see before I flew here in September, and which I never found room for on the schedule. Now I have room! So I’ll spend the next three days hiking, swimming, and building my own hot tubs on Hot Water Beach. This is kinda cool. There’s a volcanic vent under there somewhere, so you just walk on the beach until your feet get hot, then dig a hole. It magically turns itself into a Jacuzzi.

I do have one piece of advice for you if you go: do it at night, not noon. It was pretty empty last night, and as crowded as Disneyworld today.