Auckland

  Auckland, New Zealand
Sunday, December 2, 2007

airport

Even when you expect it, it's really hard to fathom how LONG an 18 hour plane ride really is.  Five hours from Atlanta to LA, then another 13 to Auckland.  Thankfully, Qantas really does cater to its customers with little TV screens on the back of each seat, and movies on demand.  It was a pretty uneventful flight except that neither Chris nor I are really able to sleep on planes, and as a result we slept less than 5 hours from when we left Atlanta to when we landed in Auckland, about 42 hours.  Customs was very painless, although they had to clean and disinfect my hiking sandals before they would let me in the country.  Unfortunately, one of our bags snuck away and went on to Melbourne, Australia, so Chris was minus his toiletries for the first day.  We did get it back by the next morning, though.

rental car

Our first scare was that our rental car ended up being a manual, even though we had asked for an automatic.  Driving on the left side of the road in a strange city is wierd enough without having to worry about the fact that the stick shift is now on the driver's left side.  Thankfully, Chris is the one doing all the driving and he only had one forgetful moment (induced by sleep deprivation, I'm sure) where he tried to drive in downtown Auckland on the wrong side of the road.

Auckland

storm drain

Auckland was just like any other city, and as NZ's largest, still quite small from our Atlantan point of view.  There is a LOT of asian influence here, evidenced by another Chinese, Korean, or Japanese restaurant on every corner.  We have noticed that what everyone told us about the Kiwis is true - that they are an exceedingly friendly group of people.  Everyone has been incredibly polite and helpful to us, which is very unlike Atlanta where it feels like you're pulling teeth just to get an answer out of someone.

Chris and Vicki

We spent our first day napping, shopping, and recovering from the flight.  We were ready to get moving the next day, onto our first adventure at the Waitomo Caves, about 3 hours south of Auckland.