15 hrs of Darkness

So let me catch everyone up. Flight to Auckland from LA was awesome. Seats were roomy and each has their own TV/entertainment set up. There were 52 movies to choose from, games, music amongst other things. As a bonus, there were not a lot of people on our flight, so once the plane was in the air, the three of us move up to the seats in front of us. This way we had no one behind or in front of us and could recline at any time. Never has a 14hr flight gone by so quickly!

We arrived at Auckland International at sunrise after spending 15 hours in darkness. Customs went smoothly and we found ourselves contemplating what to do now. It was too early to check into our B&B but we needed to leave the airport. "Lets just go downtown, have a coffee and walk around." Fair enough.

We caught the local bus to downtown for $13 a piece. Auckland City is quite a ways north from the airport. We got off at the ferry terminal at the harbor, the last stop on the route. Grabbed our bags and headed into the heart of downtown. We all had to just accept that we were tourists and that we would look a bit weird.

So we walked.. and walked some more, heading in the general direction of our home in Auckland. Auckland was a bit hillier than I thought. That, plus the luggage factor made the 2km seem longer than it was.

Our place of residence in Auckland is at a bed and breakfast called Freeman's. I would highly recommend if for anyone thinking of traveling here. We arrive there about an hour before the apparent check in time (There was no mention of time anywhere in our paperwork) Once we checked in and dropped our bags off we ventured back into the city. Mind you it was only 10:30 am at this point. We had an entire day to explore.