Auckland

Adam and I arrived safe and sound in the wee hours of Thursday morning (local time). It was a long haul to get here -- just over 5 hours to San Francisco and then 13 hours to Auckland after a 2 hour layover. The flights were mostly uneventful, aside from a screaming baby behind us on the red eye (ugh), and surprisingly, both flights arrived early.

Customs in New Zealand was also a breeze, which surprised me, because the Kiwis have a strict biosecurity policy that requires you to declare almost everything, including any food whatsoever (whether processed or not), hiking shoes/boots, any outdoor gear, swimsuits, etc. Needless to say, we had a lot to declare. But after a few questions and looking at the bottom of our shoes, we were on our way.

Auckland is a very pleasant place, sitting in the harbour on the ocean. It reminds me of Vancouver in many ways (there are areas that smack of Coal Harbour and North Vancouver) and also of Britian at the same time. The Kiwis are far more British than we Canadians.

We spent our first day just strolling around, getting our bearings, and fighting the urge to go to sleep. Yesterday was more ambitious, as we headed out to Rangitoto Island to do a hike up to the top of a dormant volcano and a little trek around the island. It was a good hike, but the weather turned foul while we were on the summit. We tried to look at it as a good opportunity to test our rain gear (it performed admirably). Today we're going to stroll and lounge around again, and tomorrow I think Adam is desprete to find some climbing. If the weather doesn't cooperate, I believe he's located some indoor climbing gyms.

We're in Auckland until Monday. Hopefully we'll have a chance to post pics before then.

Cheers. R.