Really, I know geography, I swear!

Kinda embarrassing, but I just realized how wrong I was about where New Zealand is. A couple of entries ago I was talking about how it really isn't that hard to fly here, so a few more hours to New Zealand wouldn't be that bad. Of course, this might be true if New Zealand was where I thought it was, in Papua New Guinea.

I learned the hard way when Marie and I were just talking about big vacations we might take next year. New Zealand popped into my head immediately because I've heard stories from Mike and Becky. And, I thought, "it's on this side of the ocean so it's really close." Sadly, maybe because I'm an American and there's been no war there I don't know where it is.

We did a quick search for flights and of course it really isn't that close. All the flights were ten, twelve, fifteen hours. I couldn't understand (and prices were $1,200, $1,500, etc.) how that could be. So Marie pulled up a map and I had one of those "ohhhh" moments, after which I wondered where the heck I got the idea that New Zealand was north of Australia, instead of a couple thousand miles southeast. Whose job was it to teach me geography?

But that's one way to really learn something. Forget writing it down and listening to it and teaching it to someone. Make a fool of yourself telling it to people incorrectly. Good luck ever forgetting that fact again.

But, we are closer to New Zealand, by about half the distance. All the flights from the U.S. claim it's a 24 hour flight (two-four) to New Zealand. Whew. That's hard to even imagine. I didn't suffer too much to fly overnight to get here, but I dunno. I'm not sure that trip's gonna happen. Even Australia's still ten hours and $1,200 apiece away. That might be a bit much for a couple of weeks. We'll see, I suppose.

So, that's the educational bit for me. Let this be a lesson to you!