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Published: November 13th 2009
Hey Hey Hey! We made it safely to Auckland!
We left Tuesday, Nov. 10. Eliza and her mom picked me up and I quickly realized that I am not as much of an overpacker as Eliza.. amazing. She has 2 serious bags jammed full. My backpack looks like a purse compared to those things. 😊 Our first flight from Jackson to Dallas went super fast, short layover in Dallas and onto LA. That flight was the worst. We were about to backout of the terminal and all the power completely shuts off. Eliza doesn't fly very well and this was not helping, not to mention that the pilot came on and didn't explain what happened. Everyone was just sitting in the dark imagining this happening in the middle of the air. Not good. Then, as we were about 20 minutes from landing the lady next to Eliza thought she was going to be sick. She was holding her head and leaning over. I thought Eliza was going to freak out. I, thankfully, was behind the woman and did not have to listen to her talking with the flight attendants, or worry about her missing the barf bag. Next, we had a 4 hour layover in LA, which wasn't too bad. We were able to eat and kind of people watch before the long flight. As I went to get my boarding pass the two ladies at the counter were laughing and whispering about who was about to come through the gate. She "secretly" wrote down seat 42A on my boarding pass and said Keanu Reeves would be flying with us. Sadly, we did not actually see him. We missed him walk in and were waaaaay behind him on the plane. haha so as exciting as it sounded, it was kind of a bust, but hey, he was there! 😊 The 14 hour flight, as miserable as it sounds, was not that bad. The day before, we checked our seats and rearranged so we would be beside each other with two open seats in between. As we were walking back to our planned seat a lady was sittin in mine. I showed her my ticket and she proceeded to move to the open seats in between Eliza and I. This was not going to work. I, yes, I, argued (nicely) with her until she got the flight attendant, which was dumb because she just made her go back to her original seat. She then started complaining that she could not sit in her seat because her husband (who was in the seat next to her) was ill. She made a big commotion and the husband finally moved a few seats up. About 4 hours into the flight, she reported the lady sitting behind for pushing her seat. The flight attendant, who was already annoyed by her 238 hot tea requests, came back to talk to her. She accused the flight attendant of raising her voice and stormed off (which was funny, because we're on a plane-where is she going to go?) saying "I am not a child" in a funny accent. Then, with about 2 hours left (considering we were on a 14hr flight, 2 hours is nothing) she requested that they move seats. It got to the point where the flight attendants just laughed with us because she was so ridiculous. They moved up, and we never saw them again, whew! So, also on the flight, we missed Wednesday. It simply did not exist in our life because of the time difference. When we come home, we will get it back, but it's something weird to think about. Auckland is 19 hours ahead of Mississippi. So, as I am writing this it is 5PM on Friday, but in MS it is 10PM Thursday, and it's still weird to me. We met some really nice people, slept a little, ate a little, and laughed at that crazy lady a lot. As far as 14 hour flights go, couldn't have been better. I also snagged the cozy blanket and perfect sized pillow for keeps. I know, I know, but I needed a pillow and why not get the blanket too?? 😊 When we got off the plane (930AM), we found the bus to take us to the hostel. Once we got to the hostel we couldn't check in until 1. Then we looked at each other and said "what do we do now?" and not surprisingly, neither of us had an answer. We decided to simply just walk around. We set out to see what we could, once we saw the water, we headed that way. Now, just picture this, here we are.. straight off the plane, in the same clothes that we started in 2 days ago and headed to what we thought was the harbor. It was a situation where we knew where we wanted to be, but couldn't get there. We managed to locate ourselves in the marina for the smaller boats and were walking along when some man asked us which boat was ours. I, of course, thought he was joking so I pointed to one. We laughed and kept walking, then he was about to give us some code to get through this door for the other side, but some woman stopped us and asked us which boat we were going to. Again, I thought the man was kidding.. he wasn't. She shooed us out and we never even say the big boats we were trying to get to. haha, but we did see the water and it is such a beautiful color, kind of hard to explain, but its a greenish blueish gel looking kind of water. Just go with it. Pictures will be coming soon. 😊 Next, we wandered into a park, sat, split a pack of nabs and thought about how homeless people must feel. We were just sitting, not hurting or helping anything or anyone. Just there sitting. I know that must sound weird, and it is, I know. We ventured all around. Trying to remember to first look right before crossing the street. Eliza almost was splattered on the front of a vehicle. Not to worry anyone, but it is kind of scary. Sorry mom. They have these crazy crosswalks. The thing that normally just beeps sounds like it's out of a space movie and scares us everytime. It sounds like what we imagine a tazer would sound like and then once it goes off, it beeps really fast as if it's going to get us. No one else seems to be bothered by this so we "act casual" and follow the others into the street. With all of this said, we are OK and we are going to make it, we think. It is only day 2. 😊 So after our long walking day, we went back to the hostel to get another plan together, we decided that we might as well just go eat, gross as we were, then come back, shower, and go to bed. The plan was off to a good start, we ate.. then it failed miserably. Now, it's been 36 hours in these same clothes and somehow we found ourselves hanging out with English, Dutch, Finnish and various others at the "pub" next door. It then became a game to see if we could make it to 48 hours in the same flithy clothes. We won. Finally, we showered and made it to bed. We woke up after checkout, and have since booked another night in the same place. Today- which was supposed to begin bright and early- got off to a slow start. However, we did make it to the car market typle sketch of a place. We have done a little research and are now debating on either buying a van, to sleep in, or a car, to camp around. Mom, please do not freak out. This is normal here. I am cracking up just thinking about what you all have pictured in your minds. It is hilarious. I wish we had a video camera to document our stupid Americanness. Speaking of videos, we do have one that is a must see and will be uploaded shortly. We were paranoid about getting into a room with some loud snoring boys, that's not the case. We actually have a very nice "mate", Greg, and a very odd girl, named Sam, both from England. Sam wins the star snorer award, as you will soon see. I am confident it will get rave reviews! It brought tears to our eyes. lol. Anyway, as for today, we have pondered many a thing. We met a lovely "bloke" from Israel named Noam. He is in the car market as well and we are going to meet before going to another car lot tomorrow AM. Hopefully, we will find something that suits us. 😊 My time is about to run out, but wanted to let you know how it's been thus far and what we're doing. Just think, when you wonder about what we're doing, we're wondering what to do.. so we're in this together. hahaha I love each of you and speak to you soon!!!
Oh yeah, if you want to get updates on when I make new posts, click "subscribe" on my profile and it will email you notices so you'll know to check the site. 😊
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R.P.
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Cracking Up....
I am crying I am laughing so hard. I am imagining you two and the adventures that are to come. We love you and hope you have a great trip. Have fun and remember to check under the bonnet to see if there is a working engine in the car :)