I'm embarking this afternoon on a lifelong quest to spend some time in New Zealand, with a 13-hour flight tonight from LA toAuckland, then on to Wellington. Because I'll cross the international dateline I arrive Monday morning. I don't know how our daylight savings time end will affect the time, but it will be five or so hours later there than at home. Not so much a diff as some places in Europe, but none-the-less I'm trying out No JetLag, a natural ingreddent pill said to reduce the jetleg almost entirely if taken every two hours from departure. In LA that will be 10:30at night or 1:30 am in Cleve, where I usually hit the sack at 9 p.m. I expect to be sound asleep shortly after take-off... The pill is made in New Zealand which is a jetlag distance from almost everywhere else. People think it's right next door to Australia, which is in the neighborhood, but still another 4 hour flight away if memory serves. Ive flown Air New Zealand down under before, last time to Melbourne, Australia and remember the Auckland Airport as a welcoming place where I was able to take a pay-for shower and buy some woolen hats on my layover.

I expect to be blogging from Wellingotn, and later on from the Bay of Islands and Cormandel, where I'll be kayaking and checking to see if the wrecked ship hung up on a reef is still spilling oil.

Stay tuned. It should be fun.