Fabulous Friends in Familiar Places

After an action-packed month in Colombia, it was time for a change in pace and a taste of home, visiting some fabulous friends in familiar places.

Our next destination was one we didn’t think we’d make it to this early in the trip - the great state of Nebraska! We considered several scenarios of how to meet up with Jelley’s host parents from her 2010 high school exchange in Osmond, an 8 hour drive from where we were in Denver, and had just 4 days before flying east. We were so stoked to find a way to make it happen which involved amazing people, Elton John and a lot of time on the long, straight country roads of the cornhusker state.

We picked up our sweet rental car, a brand new Kia 5, and hit the road for 5 hours heading east to Kearney, to spend the night with our great friend Hannah. It was awesome to finally meet the newest male in her life, Winston, who is an Australian…Terrier :). We were stoked to catch up with Hannah after a long 5 years. Now working for the ‘Visit Kearney’ local tourism bureau, Hannah presented us with cool Kearney t-shirts, and took us on a tour of the town. Our first stop was the outskirts, as we searched for fields filled with sandhill cranes. We had timed our trip perfectly for this phenomenon, which happens for 4-6 weeks every year as these birds migrate through the region, before flying onwards. While we had never heard of this before, it was impressive to see thousands of the cranes both in the paddocks and soaring through the sky at sunset. An epic experience, and a must do in the area if ever driving through (or to!) this ‘flyover state’.. Given Nebraska has such a strong hunting community, it surprised us that the sandhill cranes are protected from hunting, unlike many surrounding states, which is likely why the birds choose to call it home each year. Even Jane Goodall likes to base herself here to observe the annual migration!

We last saw Hannah in 2017 with a big night on Kearney’s town, and repeated that experience during this visit, starting with watching a game of minor league ice hockey before hitting the local bars. A highlight of our pub crawl was that every bar involved some kind of activity, be it a basketball hoop, shuffleboard, vertical cornhole or beer pong, which made for a fun night out!

The next morning, we were on the road again to head up to Osmond, town of 800. Surprisingly, some things had changed in the small town centre since we last visited, with devastating floods causing the reconstruction of several key buildings on the main street. Jelley’s host mom Luella had prepared an incredible home cooked lunch for us, and we loved catching up with both Luella & Kelly, after having last seen them in New Zealand 3 years ago. It was super nice to spend this quality time together again, and of course enjoy Kelly’s famous Sunday morning pancakes, with even more of the grandkids who we hadn’t yet met.

We also managed to squeeze in a catchup with some of Jelley’s school friends who are still living in town, and enjoyed a night out in the nearby metropolis of Norfolk. It had been 5 years, but felt like just 5 weeks since we hung out with Garret, Leah, Chris & Brianna, along with more classmates in the local Thompson’s Bar back in Osmond. It is so special to be able to stay connected with such great friends on the other side of the world, and we loved catching up again.

In a random twist of events, Luella & Kelly had already accepted an invite to Elton John’s concert in Lincoln the weekend we were visiting, and their friends generously extended the invitation for us to join them for the night! It was such a surreal night experiencing the vocal talents of Elton John on his 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' tour, and one of the coolest concerts we’ve ever been to. We were really grateful to be able to share this experience with Jelley’s family here!

A big 7 hour drive in the morning took us along more cornfields and cattle farms on the type of road that cruise control was invented for. We had a bit of an education from a police officer on an interstate law we hadn’t come across before, and luckily left with just a warning! Luke got a memorable education about the “move over law” and how to talk nicely to the cops.

Back in Denver for 12 hours, we caught up with Dr. Lauren for dinner at a classic American diner. An awesome new friend who spent a year as a GP in a rural Taranaki town in 2020, we had initially met on a Doubtful Sound cruise in NZ. After showing Lauren around Christchurch shortly before she returned to the US (mid pandemic!), and through the powers of social media, we kept in touch over the past couple of years and eventually made it to Denver to say hello again. It was inspiring to hear about her current work with Afghan refugees in the community, and we hope to connect again somewhere in the world.

From our dramatic exit from Colombia, to a whirlwind 5 days in Colorado and Nebraska, we were exhausted as we boarded our flight to Boston, but so glad we could pull off this catch up with so many special family and friends in a place which is always challenging to get to from our home in NZ.

Next stop, Boston! Several of Luke’s closest friends have made the jump to 'Beantown' recently, migrating from West Coast to East. While Luke had visited a couple of times, Jelley had never been, so it was a bucket-list destination on this trip and we were super excited to arrive and catch up with important people to us both.

Our strange series of events continued, and our first accommodation ended up being the prestigious St. Boltoph’s Club in the suburb of Back Bay which was arranged through a family friend connection. With our life belongings on our backs, we certainly didn’t have the attire to meet the strict ‘gentlemens’ dress code for the common areas of this historic invite-only clubhouse; however, we loved the fortuitousness of the experience and the character of such a historic building. It was the perfect place for a couple of days of R&R to catch up on rest after a whirlwind tour of Nebraska.

The area of Boston we were in (Back Bay) had a quintessential British aura. With its traditional brick building architecture and cobblestone streets it felt so much like Great Britain. It was easy to see how this region of the States received its ‘New England’ name! We were stoked that we could catch up with our family friend, Petra before she travelled to the West Coast for a business trip, and enjoyed sharing breakfast at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant nearby, before taking a stroll along the Charles River.

Luke loved sharing his favourite place in Boston with Jelley - The Boston Public Library! The historic renaissance-style building is combined with a more contemporary wing, served as a great hiding place from the bitter Boston cold. We enjoyed wandering through its many halls and floors while also catching up on some life admin.

Our host for the next week was a great friend of ours, Emma. One of Luke’s closest friends from Skidmore College, Emma and her fiancé Michael came to visit us in New Zealand on a impromptu trip in 2018, and we loved sharing the beauty of Mt Cook and our home city of Christchurch with them both. Unfortunately for us, Michael was out of the country on his own adventure in Croatia, and we just missed out on seeing each other. However, we were thrilled to have this quality time with Emma, who hosted us in her gorgeous condo right near Harvard University campus for the week.

It wouldn’t be a visit to Boston without a deep dive into the history of the city, which is one of the USA’s oldest. We decided to book a ‘Freedom Trail’ Tour, which Luke recalled visiting during his bike trip in 2017. The Freedom Trail is a 4km (2.5mi) red-brick path through Boston that passes by 16 locations significant to the founding of the United States. Our tour was complete with guide Jeremiah Poope (apparently high school was tough for him) dressed in his American Revolution garb and there were oodles of fun facts in the tour so if you’re interested, you’ll probably have to do the tour yourself! However, some highlights for us were, firstly, seeing one of the oldest buildings in Boston “The Old Corner Bookstore” which was built in 1718 and is now irreverently and ironically occupied by a Chipotle Mexican Grill (lol!). Second, seeing the location of the Boston massacre – a genesis story for the Revolutionary War. And Lastly, we enjoyed hearing the legend of the Golden Grasshopper on top of The Faneuil Government Meeting Hall, which is actually a time capsule and holds historical artefacts within it like old coins and messages from the colonialists of the 1700’s. They take the grasshopper down periodically to polish it and put the artefacts on display, pretty cool!

The next stop in our action-packed day was to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. Anyone who has seen the Netflix series ‘This Is a Robbery’ will be familiar with this incredible collection of work and its eccentric, wealthy owner. We hadn’t heard of the show, and it was fascinating to see first-hand the empty frames and the magnificent quirky artwork which remains in the gallery. We have since watched the documentary, and it is Luke’s new life mission to crack the case and bring home $15mil.

One American sport Jelley hadn’t yet seen live was basketball, and we had always wanted to experience an NBA game live. What better place to do this than with a bunch of friends in Boston, when the Celtics are having their best season in a long time! We were stoked that Jackson, who we last saw in Mexico, could make it, along with Luke’s childhood bestie Gannon and his new wife Elisha, who we were glad to finally meet after sadly missing their big day last year due to covid restrictions. Emma brought along a bunch of her local friends, and we had a blast pre-gaming at a local Irish pub before heading down to the near-new TD garden for the game. Possibly more time was spent catching up and chatting than watching the details of the game from our nosebleed seats, but the atmosphere was truly electric and super fun to be part of the win on the night.

Delicious food was a theme of Boston trip - we had a great time exploring the eats and beats of Boston, sampling amazing cuisine and cocktails throughout the week there. Highlights included amazing sushi (first time since leaving NZ!), Luke’s first udon noodles, Wagamamas, a tiki bar and also some incredible live jazz/folk music. Continuing the Asian food theme, Emma played host with us to a dumpling making night with Jackson & Gannon, which was hilarious and somewhat easier than expected, followed by the best cookies we’ve had from Gannon’s favourite shop.

Jelley had always wanted to visit Luke’s college town of Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, and we’d never really been close enough to venture up there. Originally thinking Boston was too far to drive from just for the day, with the help of Jackson’s car (legend!) and Emma’s great organisational skills, we managed to string together a last minute plan to head up for the night and stay with another fantastic classmate from Skidmore College who is still living in town, Lyssa, and her partner Nic.

It was Luke’s first time returning since graduation, and the memories came flooding back (quite literally as it rained the whole time), as we strolled along the quaint main street of town. It was nostalgic being back on the campus of Skidmore with Emma where they first met, and fun to give Jelley a tour of where the magic happened back in his student days.

Jelley couldn’t get over how cold it was, even though we were now in the first week of April and technically had left winter! We had a taste of the local spring water Saratoga is famous for, and only enjoyed the taste of 1 out of the 10 sampled springs. The worst of the lot had a strong sulphuric taste and smell, the best was crystal clear and had a fizz to it.

It wouldn’t be a trip to Saratoga Springs without the famous Druthers Mac’n’Cheese, we had a soul-warming meal with several of Luke and Emma’s friends. We’re really grateful to Lyssa & Nic for their hospitality, and Emma for making the trip back to Saratoga happen!

We loved Jackson’s car ‘Walter’ so much, we hung onto it for another day to take a roadtrip up to the ‘North Shore’ of Boston. Home to bustling coastal seaside fishing towns in the summer, it was unique to experience this area on a weekday in Spring and a struggle to find somewhere open for lunch! Nevertheless, we enjoyed exploring Halibut Point State Park, looking across the vast Atlantic to our next destination, wandering the cute streets of Rockport, beach-hopping down the coast and stopping in Salem, MA. Infamous for the Salem Witch Trials in 1693, we were intrigued to learn more from the town it all happened in. The Salem Witch Museum could do with an update…but gave an overview of the hysteria which overtook the town and led to the deaths of 24 innocent community members. The most exciting part of the museum may have been the gift shop - much more interesting than the museum was visiting the memorial next to the graveyard of those who died.

Salem itself was a beautiful town with historic houses and buildings to discover, and an impressive maritime national historic site. It was unfortunate to be in the off-season with the visitor centre closed, but it was still well worth a visit and fantastic to see some of the greater area.

Boston left a great impression on us (even greater due to the amazing hosting of Emma and getting to spend quality time with Luke's super friends Gannon & Jackson), and it felt like our second home for the 10 days we spent here. We hope we can can be back soon and while we were sad to leave after such an awesome visit, it was time to continue our travels across the pond and pick up Jelley’s visa in the UK.

‘Rich on time, poor on money’ is the phrase we use when making bigger decisions in our travels, and a savings of US$300 per person was too good to pass up when considering a direct flight to London, or a longer route via Lisbon on the red-eye service. The travel day was a blur, somehow we made it onto the underground (not the overground, an expensive mistake on Jelley’s first ever visit to London), and we were welcomed by a very familiar face greeting us at the tube station! We were spending the next week on our trusty air mattress with our old flatmates, Victoria & Andrew, who we lived with in Christchurch when A Kiwi and A Cali first met in 2016.

It was amazing to be reunited again - life had thrown a couple of major curveballs since Vic & Andrew moved to London, which meant we had still seen each other every year back in NZ, but this was our first time visiting their new lives in the UK!

Andrew was a 5/5 stars walking tour guide around the sites of London central, as we saw Big Ben (without his scaffolding that has encased him for the past 4 years), multiple palaces and statues, and the highlight - the founding stone of Canterbury, New Zealand, just a stone’s throw from NZ House in Trafalgar Square. Vic was also a 5/5 stars photographer, putting her skills to work as we captured the classic tourist shots in the country we will potentially be spending a longer time exploring this year.

One of Jelley’s good friends from NZ, Ryan, has also called London home since before the pandemic, and it was awesome to go on a tour through Hyde Park and other sites with him and Diego on the iconic ‘Boris Bikes’. Classic Ryan knew all of the tricks to dock the bikes just in time to only pay 2 pounds for the entire day of exploring, ending at a British institution, a Spoons pub for a pint.

A newer addition to London mid-pandemic, our friend Jamie took us to a super fun spot hidden under Tower Bridge - Electric Shuffle. A high-tech version of shuffleboard, this was a super modern take on the game with infrared-laser measurements and instant scoreboards. A lot of fun for a group of friends!

One of our top inspirations for going to Colombia was Jelley's friend Laura, met travelling in Guatemala. Laura had been to Colombia herself on 5 separate occasions and kindly prepared a 45 minute sales pitch on this exotic country during lockdown last year, which had Luke convinced we had to go and explore. It was super nice to hang out around the regenerated Battersea Power Station area, and enjoy some Turkish food together before we went to Turkey (lol).

Our week in the UK was rounded out with a fleeting trip to Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city, and home to Europe’s largest library. It was a fun excursion on the trains, and while a dreary day of rain, we enjoyed wandering the streets and visiting the sites of the city, soon to be home to the Commonwealth Games.

We had several epic planned overseas trips with Vic & Andrew which never went ahead - Egypt in December 2019 (our reluctance to book expensive flights ended up in them returning to NZ to get married instead, a blessing in disguise given the imminent pandemic), then a trip to Vietnam the last week of March 2020 (borders closed 2 days before our flights). We were determined it would be 3rd time lucky with our Easter trip to Turkey together! Unfortunately, we were missing Caitlin & Phil, our original travel buddies for the first 2 foiled trips, as they were still back in NZ. We’re still determined to get to that Hoi An villa with the infinity pool in the rice paddies one day .. but for now, the 4 of us in Turkey would have to do!

It felt surreal boarding the plane to Turkey - this was the last confirmed destination for a while, and we didn’t really know what to expect, but knew it would be a memorable adventure together. We can't wait to share the highlights soon!

Until then,

- A Kiwi and A Cali