Finally in New Zealand!

I left San Francisco on Monday night, and arrived in Auckland at 5am on Wednesday. I did absolutely nothing on Tuesday, April 17, because of the date line. (I forgot to mention, it was so smoggy in California! The picture of me and Erika on top of the Twin Peaks actually has the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, but you can hardly make it out.) The flight was 13 hours long, but it was okay, because they had little screens in the back of every seat and you could choose from tons of movies, tv shows, music... And not just a few, the book said there was over 450 hours! There were actually a bunch of things I was interested in, but I decided to sleep. Which also worked out well, since the plane was mostly empty and nearly everyone had their own section of seats. So I spread out over 3 seats with 3 pillows. Not bad for a plane ride!

South Piha from the Lion's Rock.

I dropped my stuff off at my mom's cousin Susan's place and shortly thereafter we got together with my mom's aunt Malle for coffee. I spent a few hours walking in the city with Malle. Then I went to Piha with Susan and her boys, Vito and Luca, for a couple of days. I thought it was going to be a long drive, since that's what they were saying, but it turns out long means 45 minutes. It was a winding road, and it did go to the other coast. Once we were there, it was nice to just relax. We went for a walk on the beach and it was just gorgeous! Luca took me up Lion's Rock.

On the beach between Milford and Takapuna, Rangitoto in the background.

Back in Auckland, I met up with Malle again and we walked all over the place. We had some excellent fish and chips, which we ate looking out at Takapuna beach. We walked along the beach and across volcanic rocks on the way to her place where I spent the night. We walked back the same way in the morning. There's a castle on the hill above the beach and the original wall runs along the side of the beach. There's a HUGE chair built out of rocks at one point. It was built in the last 100 years by someone from Scotland (?) who probably missed home.

Taranaki from the bus.

We went to my mom's cousin John's for dinner. It was really good! He's an artist and his place was full of paintings. It was really interesting. I stayed there for Saturday night and got on a bus at 7:40am headed for Wellington via New Plymouth, because all the direct buses were sold out a few days ahead of time since the school holiday was ending. The bus ride itself was only about an hour longer, but there was a one hour stop in New Plymouth, which was okay because I got to stretch my legs and get ice cream. And I got to see Mt. Taranaki from far away. It just sticks up out of the middle of some hilly farmland, all alone. I finally arrived in Wellington at 9:30pm on Sunday. I'm staying at Rein and Hazel's apartment in downtown Wellington. It's pretty convenient. It's a 5 minute walk from Te Papa museum, and right near the water.

Rain and Hazel's building.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading off on the ferry for the South Island. And then hopefully I'll do the Abel Tasman Coastal Track