Rotorua to Auckland and home, December 31-January 2

Yes, it was a rushed dash to the finale. I breezed into Rotorua (geothermal sulphur-spewing town), and plomped down by the slightly murky swimming pool at my hostel. The I noticed that the pool water smelled sulphurous -yep, it was bathtub-warm thanks to underground springs and geothermal heat! The swim was surprisingly refreshing, and it connected me up with my New Year's crowd: a Spanish girl, a British couple and I rang in 2009, dancing until my legs hurt. Up rose early so I could go to the luges (basically a gravity-powered go cart and ski lift operation). Fun, but not life-changing.

Then on to Auckland, which, I almost regret to say, makes Vancouver look amateurish in terms of civic investment. It's a clean, attractive pedestrian environments, well-done integration of heritage and newbuild, public seating and planting, funky restaurants, street life, digitally-updated bus sops, and, my favourite: kitty-corner pedestrian crossings (yes, all cars stop to allow peds to cross in all directions, including diagonally)!

And then 22 hours of flight time home to see the happy faces of my parents. It was an incredible, trip of a lifetime.

I'll end this blog with some words from Bruce Springsteen:

You can hide `neath your covers,
And study your pain,
Make crosses from your lovers,
Throw roses in the rain,
Waste your summer praying in vain,
For a savior to rise from these streets,
Well now, I’m no hero that’s understood,
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood.
With a chance to make it good somehow,
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window,
And let the wind blow back your hair,
Well the nights busting open,
These two lanes will take us anywhere,
We got one last chance to make it real,
To trade in these wings on some wheels,
Climb in back heaven’s waiting on down the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand,
Riding out tonight to case the promised land…