Time Travel

Mar 21/12 4:28pm

Here we are on the 10th floor of a hostel on Queen St in Auckland. The trip was quite smooth - we did get a row to ourselves on the plane! The direct flight was just under 13 hours and overall it felt shorter than the roughly 10 hour flight from LAX to Auckland. So we were pleased with that.

Before we got our first meal on the plane, I was watching this show called New Zealand on a Plate where they travel to different regions and cook with local chefs outside. It made me so excited! They visited this goat farm that we went to last year. They make cheeses from the goats' milk and even make a goat milk ice cream. I don't know what it was but watching this show just got me so keen for this place.

We both got bits of sleep and our flight arrived early so it was about 7am by the time we were through immigration and customs. We hopped the shuttle bus to the city and it was shocking how little traffic there was! It was dark and rainy and they didn't have a room ready for us (of course our reservation started with the 20th but check in it at 1pm.) So we stored our luggage in the luggage room and went into the TV lounge to try to sleep. We both were awake so decided to wander out for a bite to eat. We had time to kill before the bank opened so we wandered around more. Once the bank opened we activated our account (we had set it up via email) and picked up our debit cards. This was the major task to be done so that we could deposit the cash we brought over.

By noon we had a room so took a nap and then caught the shuttle down to the fish market for fish and chips. More wandering around the city followed. It's so warm over here - in the low twenties! It's been raining quite a lot but it's on and off so we didn't mind. Though we were super tired, we tried to stay up until a reasonable time so we could sleep through the night. We grabbed dinner at this yummy Asian food court we found last March and then managed to stay up until 9pm!

Today after a decent sleep (bad bed but not a loud floor luckily) we started in on the car search. At the library they had a reviews book like the Lemonaid books - except they call theirs the Dog and Lemon Report. So we found some recommended cars and sent off some emails and texts. We pick up a rental car tomorrow and move to a little apartment for the next 4 nights so we'll start actually checking out cars tomorrow - easier than trying to get around to see cars without wheels.

Tonight we're going to a comedy club we've heard about called the Classic. It's just a few blocks up from the hostel. We've been walking all afternoon again - exploring all these little alleyways full of shops and cafes. As Dustin said, doing some recon for times when we have to travel through Auckland and want interesting places to check out.

So we are not too stressed about finding a car, we have the next 4 days to do so. Then our shipment arrives and we'll head south to New Plymouth. We've just been taking things slowly, no need to rush about right now. Hoping to check out a rugby game on Friday night at Eden Park and then of course the 7 Days taping tomorrow. Lots to keep us entertained!