Brian, Jani and I flew back to Christchurch last Friday (well. we landed around 3am Saturday) with C-17. It was much shorter flight (5 hours flight instead of 8 hours using LC-130). It was so dark. 2 months of not seeing darkness, it was super weird for me seeing dark town, stars in the sky. As soon as we got out from the plane, I could smell trees, flowers, city etc. Everything was overwhelming.

Because of early morning arrival to Christchurch, we couldn’t get on the flight back to US in the same day. So we all spent one full day in Christchurch. I had lunch date with Brian, dinner date with Jani. Spent time walking in the park. It was nice to get some rest before long trip back to US. Brian and I left Christchurch early Sunday morning, finally got home after long 30 hours trip via Sydney. I last saw Brian in LA at immigration line. Hope he made back home. Jani is spending extra days in NZ. Johnny is planned to go back to Christchurch on Monday. Hope he made it as well.

Well. It’s time to say good bye to everyone. See you all at LPSC!!

– Minako

January 29, 2017