Day 1-2-3 Crazy Travel Day…

We left NL on a 5:30 am flight this day.  It was a complicated itinerary, so a time sheet was prepared to track how long and at what time each step took……..have a look below:

Needless to say it was a long and tiring day.   We managed it pretty good, tried to minimize caffeine and alcohol.   We cat napped on the first flight, tried to stay awake most of our second flight and during the stop in Vancouver and then we took melatonin to try and sleep as much as possible on the overnight flight to Auckland.   

We arrived in Auckland 30mins early, at about 10:25am.   We went to the One NZ Telecom store in the airport and had them activate the esim cards we had purchased online, this gave us a local phone number, calling time, texts and data while in New Zealand.

We had a taxi prearranged to meet us in the airport, $58Ca.   The driver was in the airport, immediately outside the secure area, waiting with a sign with our name and took us to our hotel in a beautiful and very clean vehicle.   

It was a cloudy day when we arrived in Auckland but about 24C.   

We got to the hotel a bit early, before the 2pm check in time, so they stored our luggage and we went for a walk down to the harbour front area.   

So sights along that walk (note, we might look a little travel weary, 36 hours travelling, wearing same travel clothes as when we left NL!)……

We stopped for a coffee and treat while on our walk and we also stopped at a tourist information office and picked up some maps and other tourism information for the areas of the country we plan to visit.

The sign board in the above picture was at the tourist info office.  New Zealanders (Kiwis) feel very strongly about respecting the land and nature.  We had to go through a biosecurity checkpoint upon arrival in the country.  You are not allowed to bring in any food, nor any dirt on your shoes!

After we checked in at the hotel we made a trip to a supermarket, about a five minute walk from the hotel.   We picked up various provisions, for breakfasts and this days supper.   

We stayed at the Quest on Beaumont.  Quest is a popular hotel chain in some parts of the world.  We had a lovely kitchenette in our room that was equipped with a small fridge, dishwasher and two burner stove top, microwave, kettle, dishes etc.  It also had a washer and dryer in the bathroom.  

So it is great to be able to get up and have breakfast in the room before we head out. Gale even cooked fresh lamb chops for supper the first night!  They were fantastic!