Whew! We made it!

---

Getting out to LAX was a breeze. LAX, I can say I officially hate. Large airport, terrible signage, smoggy smelly air, Nicest TSA I've ever met, but sucks to fly international. You have to go out of the airport, take a bus then back through security to catch your plane. Just glad I don't have to do that often.



We arrived into Auckland Airport about 8 am on Monday the 20th. The staff and customs are really nice. They even joked and teased. We made a quick call on the pay "tele" to the cab company. Within 40 minutes of arriving we had our luggage, went through customs, got a local phone number and had a driver calling us by name and placing our bags into the trunk of his car.

We are staying at a small hotel that is number one for backpackers and is just a 15 minute walk to the port.

The first day we came, we walked around got a lay of the "land" (downtown) and found out that food is really expensive, and in my opinion bland and nothing to write home about it (HAHA even though I just did)

We walked the port. Strolled the harbor, viaduct (which has a fresh fish market), read some of the history of Auckland and found out that Queen St. here is the equivalent to 16th street in Denver. I wish I has some pictures to show, but unfortunately learning a new camera turned into an accidental deleted first day of photos.

We both said, at least it was the first day rather then the last.



On Tuesday we took a ferry from Port 1 30 minutes to Rangitoto Island. It is an uninhabited island and only came into visible existence about 600 years ago. The oldest trees are about 250 years old. It used to be barren and made up of complete lava rocks. If you have ever touched one, they are VERY sharp, but full of nutrients.

We hiked to some of the lava caves and did a bit of spelunking. At first crawling into a dark whole that was about 2 feet tall for about 10 or more feet which then would open up to larger caverns (pics attached).

After we climbed around in the caves for an hour we make a steep hike to the crater and summit of the island. The crater itself is 60 meters deep and 200 meters wide. The hike went from sea level and strait up over 900 ft.

The summit of Rangitoto during war times was used a a vantage point for New Zealand due to its vantage of seeing multiple areas of land and sea. As New Zealand is surround by water it became hard to narrow where enemies might be coming from . (Pictured)

We had lunch at the top summit and then JOGGED (for those of you who know this is something I DO NOT DO and HATE to do) back down the steep and sharp terrain to try and catch the 12:45pm ferry back to the main island. It wasn't as bad as of a jog as thought, first it was down hill, second it was at sea level (thanks Colorado) and third did I mention down hill?

Once back we ran a few errands, came back to the hotel to rest up our sore calve's. We headed to a near by cafe to by a $7.50 (us) small chai so that we could by an hours worth of internet.

There is no such thing as free wifi around here, unless you buy something.

Tomorrow we are being picked up by www.piwiwiwi.co.nz owners so that we can get settled in our van and head off to wine country.

Last two things, weather has been nice, 65 degree's with 93% humidity.

---