Day 23 - Wednesday March 5, 2024 - On the Way home

 

Good to be headed home

Lots of thoughts as I end this trip.

Until a few days before the end of the trip, I never felt 100%

The heat on the first day, combined with the rainforest and feeling faint, throwing up did not do much to set a positive tone for the trip

Food never seemed to agree with me.  Wayne kept kidding me about how little I ate, but nothing seemed quite right.

Breakfasts were all buffets and the food looked tremendous.  It was pretty much, anything you could want to eat, but...the only thing that seemed to want to stay down was corn flakes and a piece of bread.

The boat ride to the great barrier reef made me seasick.  I've never gotten sick on a boat, no matter how small or big or waves or bouncing.  The rolling didn't help.  I guess I should count as positive that I was abled to go down inside the mini submarine but I was sweating and hot but managed to keep it together until we surfaced.

We had an amazing Bush Dinner with rib eye steaks and baked potatoes and lots of other things but I barely ate any of it.

The closing dinner at Tony's Steakhouse was fun.  I ordered salmon and yet I barely ate any of it.  We had hamburgers for lunch that day and I actually ate most of it but it didn't taste like ground meat in the US.   Too much lunch and I didn't want dinner

We had a French meal one night.  I ordered onion soup and dessert, a pear almondine tart.  I ate my soup and split my tart with someone.  It was the smartest thing I did, not to order too much.

I fell outside the School of the Air, tripping over a grate in the pavement.  Black and blue knees made for a few sore days.  Coming home I'm still a bit bruised.

I caught a cold toward the end of the first week and coughed and hacked my way through almost 2 weeks of cold.  I finally had a "no tissue" night!  

The cold spread to my eyes and a pharmacist in New Zealand was able to prescribe an antibiotic for what may have been conjunctivitis.   

Missing the Maori cultural evening was bad and good.  I had the runs that day and it was best to stay behind.  I would have enjoyed the crafts.  I still don't know why, except for ordering too much rich food the night before.  We ate at The Pig and Whistle. I ordered seafood chowdeanf ate about 1/3rd and then the brisket which had a real rich gravy and ate just a few mouthfuls.  The quantity wasn't great, but it certainly reacted badly.

So I've learned to travel and not be 100%.  I'll look at this as a positive.  

On a very positive note, the group of 23 were better than the South America trip.  We all seemed to enjoy each other more.

I wish I could have done more, activity wise but it was not to be.