Well this point had to come, and to be fair I knew it would come around now. I am shattered. Knackered, exhausted, pooped and brain-mashingly tired. Arriving into Auckland at midnight is one thing, having to turn round and check-in for a second flight at 7am the following morning does kind of feel like pushing it a bit. (I should add at this point if you're keen on pix, you might want to skip this blog post - I haven't got the energy to sort any out!)
And doing it solo does, in all honesty, make it a little harder. No-one to make you laugh, or remind you that you're on the trip of a lifetime so bloody spark up; no-one to say - have you checked the safe (no, so I left my passport in it...) Or, have we double-checked the room (no, so I left my credit card in it...) or, maybe you should screw the top on that bottle of bright blue nail varnish a bit tighter (I didn't, so it leaked all over my sponge bag).
Travelling solo is daunting and rewarding in equal measure. You meet people more, you chat, you interact in a different way - from the lovely car hire man who paternally told me I 'clearly had too much on' to the sweet customs guy who reassured me I wouldn't get arrested for taking a half-eaten bag of peanuts through custome. You reach into yourself to find resources you didn't know you had. Arriving at my hotel to find there's a dinner planned with half a dozen people I don't know isn't exactly my dream scenario right now, but where there's an iron, some lippy and a large glass of white there's always a way.
For anyone considering a solo trip I would say do it, absolutely. It's a great feeling to be thousands of miles away, knowing that you got yourself there under your own steam and that you're having an adventure all of your own making. My main advice would be to remember that you see places much quicker when you're travelling solo - particularly cities. There are no long lunches, no lazy afternoons, there's no-one to lie on the beach with, so you tend to get round places much quicker. Four days in Sydney was plenty to get in the main sights; by the fifth day I felt almost as if I was hanging around for my flight.
Try and keep your arrangements simple too - two flights and complicated car hire and insurance docs in 12 hours made for a mass of paperwork and admin. You are more likely to forget things when you're travelling alone - so keep it simple. And use social media and email with care - its a huge plus in terms of eating alone - the iPad is the solo diner's best friend - but if you spend too much time in touch with peeps at home, it can make you feel even more on your own.
But enough with the prosaic stuff, back to the travels. I haven't seen a huge amount of NZ yet, just the small town of New Plymouth, dominated by the huge Taranaki volcano (picture isn't mine, its grey and rainy today).
It feels agreeably frontier town-ish and the flight up from Auckland was a soothing 40-minute glide over lush agricultural landscapes that looked almost English. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, saddling up my shiny SUV and heading for the hills.
Time for a bit of a siesta I think, before the whole dinner shebang kicks off. But the stresses of the morning have been soothed away by a long walk along New Plymouth's beach promenade, watching the waves glide in towards the rocks. It's the one constant in travel, for me at least; whether Bondi or Brighton or the black sand shoreline around here; reassuring and peaceful - the perfect antidote for a very tired mind.
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