It's really wierd to finally be here. I'm not super stoked. I'm not unhappy. I just am. I'm currently sitting on the top of one of 3 bunk beds in a med-large room. I'm sharing this single bed with all 1/2 my luggage at the moment. I have Hawaiian sand and Chilkoot grit on the bed sheet from unpacking by backpack. You can never fully get the inside of those things clean.
It's hard to believe that a little over 24 hours ago ( 31 hours to be exact) I was saying good bye to my family. They took it pretty well - until I got into the security line. My sister started crying. It made me feel pretty bad to see here teary face pressed against the glass divider after security. Her hand pressed against the glass if she were a child missing her mom :(
I talked to her 5 hours later, when I was in the armpit of LAX (Tom Bradley International terminal - ugh), she was feeling much better.
I spent the next 20 hours on a plane or in an airport. The 10.5 hour flight to Fiji provided me with dinner and lunch, as well as many entertainment options. I generally pride myself on sleeping on every plane I get on, but I had a really hard time sleeping on this overnight flight. Eventually I drifted into a deep dream. Just when the karate scenes were getting good, the intercom came on announcing breakfast. We landed in Fiji in the dark, but when we took off several hours later, the large mountains were glowing green and luscious. 2 hours later I was eating my second Air Pacific breakfast. Apparently the New Zealand ban on outside meats and egg products is taken very seriously. While the breakfast plate of egg log (like the egg round on fast food products), sausage, and fried potatoes was basically the same - the New Zealand destination flight was far uckier. I generally don't have much against airline foods. It's not great, but it's generally edible. I'm not sure that the meat log they called sausage was even edible. In looks and texture it reminds me of a vienna sausage. I'm not sure when I last ate a vienna sausage, but this particular piece had a flavor I can describe only as "unappetizing". However, the fresh fruit bowl, with yummy pineapple made up for the less than satisfying meal.
Finally, At 11:30 AM of Tuesday May 13th, I got my first glimpse of NZ.
Within 1/2 an hour of landing I was already through customs! They had so many agents ready to go that I had no wait in line. The visa process took 1 minute, they didn't even check to see that I had the required items for a working holiday visa (health insurance, sufficient funds, etc); heck, he didn't even want to see my travel visa!
So once I was out of the airport, a very nice shuttle driver put my gear in his van where a nice
Canadian girl was already waiting. When the van we full, we headed off to Auckland. The Canadian and I talked about the oddness of driving on the opposite side of the road and how neither of us had seen push button gears before (push R twice for reverse). I firmly believe that shuttle drivers in any country are scary. They tailgate, they speed, and they always seem to be half in the other lane. Add to that the driving on the opposite side and I was only slightly more worried than when we were being driven around in Mexico (only 2 months ago?).
I had to wait an hour for the hostel owner to get back from lunch, but I got checked in. I was told by the shuttle driver and Irish traveler returning from Fiji, that most all shops and restaurants close at 5 here. So I put off taking the a much needed shower (airplane air, 24 hours in the same clothes - I was feeling icky) and headed downtown. I wondered around for a time - found a couple banks I'll check out tomorrow and also an outdoor gear store (where I perused the clothes, but forgot to check for an outlet adapter! - to charge my computer!). Then it was back down Quay (pronounced "key") Street to the foodtown market and some supplies.
I managed to allow myself to look like a tourist in order to take a couple pictures of some downtown Auckland landmarks: The Sky Tower (Auckland's version of the space needle) and a Bungy contraption.
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