Hello from the Future!

Greetings from tomorrow (New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of DC/Boston (EST), so unless you're reading this between midnight and 5:59 AM, I'm a day ahead. First off, bad news about the future: sadly, we still don't have jetpacks, and global warming has definitely happened - it's way hotter in the land of tomorrow (Auckland) than it is in the land of yesterday (Boston). On the plus side, lots of people have neat accents, which can be fun.

At this point I've been in New Zealand for about 3 1/2 days, and have been having a blast. I've met a bunch of cool fellow travelers, done some small hikes, and even seen dolphins! But I'm getting ahead of myself. You'll have to wait a few more days to read about my dolphin expedition.

My last blog post was written at LAX, en route to New Zealand. I finally hopped onto the New Zealand Air flight at 10 pm, and after a 5 hour night's sleep, 2 movies (The Fantastic Mr Fox and an embarrassing chick flick involving Matthew McConaughey based on A Christmas Carol which I refuse to admit to watching), 4 episodes of How I Met your Mother (I'd never seen it before, great show!), several free meals and free glasses of wine (I love international travel!), and a quick stopover in the Cook Islands, I was on New Zealand soil!

By the time I got to my hostel, I had been traveling for 37 1/2 hours, and had not exactly slept that much. So, of course I immediately wanted to take advantage of my time in New Zealand, and went out to go exploring. Bad Idea. After a rather miserable hour I realized I REALLY need a nap. After a good three hour nap I actually felt human, and even managed to rally and go to the Hostel's bar where I came in second place in a contest to win a whitewater rafting trip. Not bad for my first night in New Zealand!

The next day I explored Auckland for a little: I hiked up Mount Eden and got a great view of Auckland, then wandered back, checking out all the nieghborhoods, parks, etc. I also got a haircut, after Grace noted from my picture in my last post that I was getting a bit shaggy - gotta save the dirty hippie look for when I've been traveling for a few more months!

I then caught a bus up north to the Bay of Islands, where my real adventures began (ie, I saw dolphins). But you'll have to wait another day to hear about that!

As always, here are a few pics from my adventure:

Our plane at the Cook Islands stopover. Their airports have way better scenery than ours.

The Auckland Sky Tower

Even the public restrooms in Auckland look awesome!

The view of Auckland from Mount Eden