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Published: November 14th 2015
Welcome to New Zealand
Check out the carvings! We arrived in Auckland Saturday morning at 6 am. The 13 hour flight from Los Angeles wasn't bad...just long! Customs and immigration wasn't difficult, sim card was purchased, clothes were changed and it was then just a matter of getting our car. The car rental shuttle came and picked us up and we had our wheels soon there after. (Side note, everything was on the left side and you drive on the left. Jeff stopped laughing at me for continuing to flip the wipers on instead of the turn signal when it was his turn to drive...yeah, not as easy as you think it is!)
By 7:30am, Jeff and I were ready, let the adventure begin!
And we spent the next 2 1/2 hours completely lost! With our brand new sim card, smart phone, Google maps...who needs the added on extra of a sat nav? Yeah...well, we did. But with patience, persistence, a little bit of luck and the help of some really friendly Kiwi fishermen, we got to our destination...the Parnell French Saturday Market. Whew!
So, we are here, experiencing New Zealand, and found out that the quaint market stalls do not take international credit cards...okay...off to
Waiting for car rental shuttle
Kristine is cradling the Blue Book of Travel! find an atm. No problem the friendly Kiwis said, just follow this path and don't be worried about the path, it will lead you to where you need to go. Well, we walked the path (beautiful by the way) and came out on Parnell street.
Our stomachs reminded us it had been a long time since the yogurt served on the flight so brunch was in order. We stopped at the first place we saw and promptly sat down and ordered. We were served the best breakfast! Wait staff was very friendly and engaging and told us not to worry about finding an atm, they'll give us cash back. Brilliant! (Side note, no tipping here. We tried, but they just want our thanks instead!)
Back to the market where we bought our dinner; wine (New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc of course) garlic bread, cheese, hummus, red peppers and stuffed olives. While chatting with a couple of ladies about the yummiest qualities of the stuffed olives we were asked if we were Canadians...uh...no, we're Americans. She then went on to say that we don't speak like Americans but like Canadians. Wait...what? (Was Jeff channeling Fargo, his favorite show?) Apparently Americans
Auckland
We're looking onto where we WANT to be...helpful fishermen got us there! No clue how we ended up there but we got some great pictures. talk really fast...huh...who knew? We told them we were from Salem, Oregon (home of the slow talkers it seems) and had a surprise when one of the ladies said she's been there! Small world indeed!
With dinner in hand we were off again to locate our lodgings for the next three nights. We were successful and excited to see that the photos of the listing did not lie...there was a hot tub! Unpacked, dinner consumed and relaxing in the hot tub ended our first day in Auckland. With very minor hiccups, we did it!
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