Arriving in Auckland

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
After a long flight from Buenos Aires via Santiago, I arrive in New Zealand. What a drastic change from South America. The accents are a bit funny and hard to understand at times, but it is nice to feel safe. I take one backpack off my back and relax, not worried that it will be stolen or wondering where my money and passport are. It is a nice change.

I fly first class on LAN and it is pretty nice . I am served great meals and wine and watch two movies before extending my chair into a bed and falling asleep. I think that I probably slept better than any hotel that I stayed at recently and awake before my arrival to New Zealand refreshed and ready to start the day.

The airport is beautifuful, very modern and people are overly nice and helpful with any questions. First impressions, this place is great!!! I await for Kristin to arrive 8 hrs later. Instead of going to the hotel, I decide to start planning what we are going to do here. We really did not plan anything other than a hotel when we arrived. We expected to rent a camper van and drive from the North Island to the South Island and fly back, but did not have reservations. While waiting for Kristin, I start looking into our options. The girls at the info center become my good friends and load me down with about 50 different brochures. I tell them that my girlfriend was supposed to decide where we were going and I asked them to not tell her when she arrived that I had spend the last 6 hrs questioning them on advice . The think this is funny, but agree to go along with it.

Kristin arrives to the airport and I do my best to bring her by the visitor info center without acting like I had been there before, but the girls at the visitor center start laughing when I arrive and act as it was my first time at the visitor center.  Kristin instantly knows my game and asks "how long has he been here?"  It is a good laugh for everyone.

Although we originally wanted to get a camper with a shower and toliet, we get a great offer from a company that has a Toyota Vans with painted art on the side of them. They are kind of like hippie-style vans from my parents generation, but we decide that it will be fun and decide to go with the less expensive hippie van.

The Hyatt hotel in Auckland is great and I surprise Kristin with a Dinner Cruise aboard a Sailboat. We cruise on a sleek racing-style sailboat under the Auckland bridge. Unfortunately, there is not much wind and we motor most of the way. They try putting the sails up, but we go no where. It is pretty cold, but very pretty. The dinner is excellent, but we are both exhausted and ready to call it a night.

Our walk back to our hotel is nice. Auckland is a clean, modern city. Many bars, they don't appear too busy, but it looks like it could be a fun place to go out.

Comments

ray
2010-02-01

thats so cool i wish i was there

2025-02-16

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