We Made It!!

After a flight to Houston, a 7 hour layover and 17 hours on a plane, we finally made it Auckland!  The flight was actually great.  We flew Air New Zealand direct from Houston to Auckland, and the flight attendants were (**gasp**) FRIENDLY!  Can you imagine?  I had fully prepared in many ways so that I would be able to get the most sleep possible on the flight.  My carry on bag looked like a small pharmacy, but it worked!  We got lots of sleep and landed in Auckland about 8am, so we had the whole day ahead of us!  But we weren't tired until about 7:15, which is when we basically congratulated ourselves for staying up so late and hit it.

In Auckland we stayed at the Hilton Auckland, which was right on the water and a great place to stay.  Everyone was super nice, and they even gave us access to their gym area so we could shower or freshen up since our room wouldn't be ready until much later.  Then we headed out in to the downtown area in search of breakfast and a good flat white!  The downtown area is great.  It reminded me a lot of San Francisco because there is an awesome waterfront with lots of shops and restaurants, only nicer really.  It was also very hilly, just like the entire country.  So you would be walking way up and down hills, just no trolley cars that I saw.  Then all over downtown had lots of great places to shop/eat/get coffee.  I am pretty sure it has to hold a record for number of coffee shops that aren't Starbucks in a downtown area.  Like there would be 3 on any given block!  They take their coffee seriously, which I can totally get behind.

Jason has a friend who lives in Auckland so we met up with them for a late lunch at an Irish pub on the Viaduct Harbour and it was the most beautiful sunny day so we sat on a patio and hung out for a while.  The next morning we just headed straight out to get a rental car ,and head to Matamata (where Hobbiton is, but that's a whole other post!).  In case you weren't aware, Kiwis drive on the LEFT hand side of the road.  It is truly challenging.  I think it takes both of our brains to figure out how to turn in to what lane and to let the other person know they are WAY to close to the edge of the road.  It is a serious exercise of the brain to be constantly thinking 'stay on the left, stay on the left, stay on the left'.  AND just sitting on the left and not driving feels really strange.  Like you constantly want to be reaching for the wheel or hitting the breaks.  But we are learning slowly but surely!

So far here is what I know about New Zealand - it is GORGEOUS!!!  If you have any thoughts in your head about how amazingly beautiful it is, but aren't sure it would live up to they hype.  Be assured.  IT DOES.  Every time we turn a corner there is some new grandeur to behold.  We have literally laughed out loud multiple times at just how ridiculous the landscape is.  Like it can't possibly be real.  Plus there are cows and sheep EVERYWHERE!  I feel like I read somewhere that something like 50% of the people in New Zealand were farmers.  Or maybe it just feels that way.  But it is just beautiful to drive along seeing these little white dots all over the hills.  This is one of the first places we stopped outside of Auckland and took a picture. 

So that was day 1 and 1/2 in the books.  Next up Hobbits and Glow Worms...stay tuned!