Welcome to Auckland!

1

4-17-2007 Welcome to New Zealand

Andrea: After an extremely long flight, (with no movies f¼ ) we finally landed in Auckland at 5am. We went right to work on getting a campervan for the 12 days here, as everyone we talked to said that is the best way to see the country. While we waited until 8am for the rental place to open, I managed to take a shower at the airport. A shower at the airport you ask? Yes, they actually had private showers, with towels, shampoo, and the whole bit! It was great! Anyway, so Jose beat the campervan rental guy down on the price, and we got an amazing deal. Then we took a look at it and realized not only do we have to drive on the left side of the road¡Kbut the van is a stick shift!! (So you shift with your left hand!) It was pretty comical at first trying to figure everything out, but Jose got the hang of it after a couple hours.

11

Our first stop in New Zealand? The SKY TOWER ¡V the highest building in the Southern Hemisphere. I¡¦m starting to feel like I¡¦m on a Road Rules episode on MTV ¡V flashback to the 90¡¦s. The minute we got the van, we immediately made our way to the Sky Tower to jump off the building ¡V 170 meters down. Yes Mom, we were safely harnessed in, and there was a back up rope¡Kjust in case! I was a little nervous going up, because we only saw one person jump before us, although looking up to the top of the tower from the ground, it didn¡¦t seem so high¡K¡K

Going up the elevator totally changed my mind. This was HIGH up there!!! When we got to the platform, I decided to go first while Jose waited. It was pretty scary¡Kyou look down and all you see is pavement, cars, and smaller buildings, and a big red target for you to land on.

111

I decided not to fall backwards, as I was told this is the chicken way of going ¡V and I jumped face first. It was awesome!! They stopped us about 10 meters down to take a picture, and then the line was released and it was a free fall to the ground. AMAZING!!! Jose jumped after I did, and he swam through the air ¡V legs and arms flying the whole way ¡V Matrix style! When we both were done, the woman in charge offered us a second jump each for free since it not very busy that day! Of course we were up for it! The second jump was much better ¡V less nervous, and I took in some amazing views of Auckland, the bay, and surrounding islands. It was so beautiful! The second jump was also better because they don¡¦t stop you for a picture ¡V you just go straight down. The adrenaline rush was incredible!

1111

So after that amazing experience, we decided to get out of Auckalnd ASAP ¡V as city streets are not very friendly for extra long campervans. We made our way down New Zealand¡¦s winding roads to Waihi Beach ¡V it was a little chilly for the beach, but the view was incredible. I would love to have one of these little cottages right on the shore. We then made our way down to Papamoa Beach, right as the sun began to set. Again ¡V absolutely beautiful views, beautiful sandy beaches, and everything in New Zealand is so clean and well kept!

We kept driving to get to Rotorua, where we wanted to spend the next day. We figured it was a big city on the map, so it would be a good place to go out and have a few drinks and meet some people¡K..wrong. Rotorua was a ghosttown! We checked in to our campsite¡Kyes, we are camping¡K.at about 7pm, and it was pitch black outside¡Konly to notice that it was all basically old people! Apparently late night life is not a big thing here..the check in at the campside ended at 8pm, so we just barely made it. All the shops downtown were closed already ¡V this is definitely not Buenos Aires anymore! There were a few young English guys hanging out in the kitchen, but nobody really seemed up for a chat. So, we ate some ham sandwhiches, PB&J, drank some New Zealand beer, and headed off to bed! We¡¦ll have more excitement for tomorrow!!

11111

111111

a

aa

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

oo

ooo

oooo

ooooo

p

pp

ppp

pppp

ppppp

q

qq

qqq

qqqq

qqqqq

r

rr

rrr

rrrr