First Days in Kiwi-land

After long day and night of flights and a bit of a hassle at customs, we finally made it into Auckland NZ early Tuesday morning .  (Mental note: Don’t carry personal protection spray into foreign lands and don’t tell the immigration folks you’re both unemployed unless you have a return ticket in hand! ) The rest of day 1 was pretty much a blur of napping, grocery shopping and getting on NZ time.

Jet lag behind us (or so we thought), we headed out for an 11km (or 6.5mi) run on Orewa Beach on Wednesday morning. Alaina and her sister’s family (Alenka, Chris and Mykala) live a short downhill walk from a gorgeous stretch of sand.  Of course, you do have to go uphill to get back! Alaina was psyched that Josh tracked our distance – she was surprised to find out she’d been running that far. 

Alaina had a daytrip planned for us – kayaking in Puhoi, then up to Goat Island for some snorkeling with the fishies.  Kayaking on the river was scenic and relaxing! The singing cicadas in the trees, mallard ducks floating by, the odd eel sighting all made for a great intro to NZ wildlife. To Josh’s dismay, Alaina let us know that we wouldn’t be seeing any bears, mountain lions or even snakes unless we visited Auckland zoo! Apparently, the biggest pests in NZ are the possum and a poisonous spider that is nearly extinct.

We only made it a bit further north when Josh started to feel a little queasy (jet lag returns?). So, we stopped for lunch and checked out a nearby sand spit. Turned out to be just a marina with no sand to spit on, so we found a grassy spot to relax in the sun before heading home.

 

Josh hit the pillow around 3:30pm and spent the next 16 hours in bed! So, Alaina and I made our move on Auckland and joined the Couchsurfing group for drinks and mingling downtown on the wharf. Alaina thought the whole CS idea was sketchy at first, but we ended up meeting several nice Kiwis (New Zealander’s), travelers and even a few Americans at the meeting. We even ran into a ‘manny’ (or male nanny) from Virginia who is living down here for a year, taking care of someone’s kids! Random, but can you blame him? I’d rather change diapers in NZ than just about anywhere else!