The Journey Begins...

So this journey begins at LAX where I met up with Cayla who had fortunately gotten the same flight as me. As all airport procedures go, it was full of long lines before we got to our gate. Fortunately, Cayla and I were able to get seated together for the very long 12 hour flight. Of course, I had been dreading this flight for a while now, considering the unbelievably long time I was expected to sit in one place. However, I am easily swayed by one thing, food. Despite leaving at 11:30 pm, we had a delicious dinner on the plane complete with dessert, tea, and cadbury hot chocolate. Then followed a goody bag with snacks. After dinner and watching Julie and Julia, Cayla and I both had some tylenol pm and ended up waking up 6 hours later for breakfast. Not nearly as good as dinner, but all the same, best plane meals I've ever had. An hour later, we had landed. Overall it was one of the best flying experiences I've ever had.

After landing, there was another series of ridiculously long lines for customs and the biosecurity check. They take invasive species seriously in New Zealand. We had Piper the beagle getting into all of our bags to make sure no one brought in fresh fruit or plants. Finally we got out of the airport and into the humid and overcast land of Auckland, New Zealand.

While riding the Airbus to our hostel, I was looking around and taking it all in. One of the first things anyone will notice is, similar to England, everyone drives on the left side of the road. Next I was amazed with the amount of diversity New Zealand has. There was a surprising amount of Asians and Indians, and my Lonely Planet Guide said that 20% of Auckland is Asian. This of course equals a large amount of sushi restaurants. So far though, Auckland seems fairly similar to any other city. It's hilly like San Francisco, it has crisscrossing freeways like LA, and it has Victorian houses like Santa Cruz. Its not that I'm saying its not beautiful, we drove by a beautiful lake and everything is quite green, its just not exactly what I expected.

We finally got to our hostel which to my dismay was upstairs. I am already hating my giant blue suitcase that is filled to the brim. Thank god the guy who checked us in volunteered to help me get my two 50 lb suitcases upstairs. So far Cayla and I dont have roommates in our two bunk bed room. But the beds are extremely comfy (or perhaps I'm just so tired I dont care) and they have free Wifi.

We had lunch at a sushi restaurant across from the hostel, which knew about California rolls but didn't have any available. Then the exploring began. We walked up and down K road and saw some very interesting stores. The Cruelty Free store was definitely a favorite with really awesome environmentally friendly products. We then found Myer park in the middle of the city where I found a MYNAH BIRD! If you don't know, those are birds found all over Hawaii. I guess I should have figured that as they are both islands in the Pacific, they would probably have similar fauna. Anyway, we trekked back up the hill, and had smoothies under our hostel. So not too much exploring in the first day, but we still have all day tomorrow before orientation on the 4th.

Fun Facts
So while Cayla was waiting for me to get to the airport, she noticed some people checking a lot of band equipment. Turned out it was for Taylor Swift who was on our flight. We didn't get to see her (she was probably in first class upstairs...yes our plane had two floors) and probably boarded early. But Cayla did get a guitar pick!

Also, I completely missed out on February 1st. Because of the time change and leaving at 11:30 pm on the 31st,and the 12 hour flight, we arrived in New Zealand on February 2nd at 8:30 am. For those who don't know the time change, New Zealand is a day ahead of California minus 3 hours. So its currently 5:06 pm Feb, 2nd and its 8:03 Feb 1st in California.