We're Hereeee

Ahhh just woke up from a semi-mediocre sleep.  It is 7:30 am here in Auckland New Zealand.  The sun is shining and the people are as nice as the day is bright!  Yesterday we landed in Auckland around 7am Tuesday morning after an only somewhat grueling 18 hour flight.  (approx. 2pm Monday afternoon in Philadelphia).  We proceeded through customs without a hitch!  Upon exiting the airport we could immediately smell a sweeter air and feel a calmness you don’t often find in the airports/cities of America.  The airport is approx. 14 miles from our hostel, and the centre of the city, so we took a bus for $16 (~$13 USD).  The hostel is pretty clean, and offers a kitchen, tv rooms, chill out area, bathrooms, and bed rooms with electronic card keys and 4 sets of bedrooms. 

One of our first concerns was, of course, safety and security of our belongings, but the rooms allow an eased mind.  The door keys were just like that of a hotel, and even though the 5 of us shared our room with 3 other people, we were the only ones who locked our stuff up, the other people didn’t even care.  This was our first sense that Americans were maybe a little different than the rest of the world. 

Our second main concern was transportation, and this led to the purchase of my first vehicle!! And what a beaut she is! (Pictures to follow)  We are still struggling to name her…She will either be “The Tinman” or “Rudy the Rhino”, either way she is beautiful and she works likes charm!  She is a 1993 Toyota “Lucida” (or “Estima”) and she has 2 sunroofs and a sandy finish.  We will pick her up officially on Thursday, but she has already undergone a 104 point mechanics inspection to give us the go-ahead.  She will cost us a total of approx $5300 (~$4240 USD) total for insurance, inspection, vehicle, NZ tax, and tags.

After getting the car situation we spent a lot of time walking around, seeing the harbor, and taking beautiful pictures.  I’ll go into greater detail about sites later because we are scheduled for a bus tour this morning and I’m sure there will be lots more to say about it tomorrow.

Everyone seems to agree that this place feels very homey, and there is very little to dislike.

Until next time, Cheers!