Made It!

The final hours leading up to our departure were a little more chaotic than I had imagined a month ago. I’m finding out that I have some ailment that prevents me from packing for a trip until the very, very, very last minute. Rachel was completely packed a week before we left, so she sat on the couch reading the newspaper while I was literally running around trying to accomplish 8 things at once. I’ve already discovered several missing items. The only thing that really mattered was making it to the airport on time, something that I have struggled with in the past (causing Rachel a great deal of frustration).

During our 6hr layover in LA, we realized we’d be arriving just in time for one of New Zealand’s biggest holidays. Waitangi Day is a national holiday celebrating the founding document of modern New Zealand – the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840. Among other things, the treaty was meant to create a more harmonious relationship between the native Maori and the late-arriving British. We received an email from our visa sponsor suggesting several festivals for us to attend, so our first full day was already planned for us.

Thursday, February 5
After 30 hours of surprisingly smooth travel, we landed in Auckland on a balmy summer day. Dressed in our winter clothes from Atlanta, we quickly started sweating while waiting for the shuttle to the hostel. The shuttle ride from the airport to downtown gave us quick glimpses of the blue bays and far-off hilly islands. The hostel is one of the best I’ve ever stayed in – it has a job search center (complete with ads for fruit picking, baristas, and guiding various outdoor tours), a full travel agency with cheap budgets in mind, a nice kitchen supplied with all the utensils we’d ever need. They also have some form of entertainment planned for every night.

Friday, February 6
Our bodies were completely confused with the drastic time change. New Zealand is 18-19hrs later than Atlanta/Texas, respectively. We forced ourselves to stay awake until 10pm on Thursday and we were wide awake at 5:15 the next morning. We went for a long walk through one of the nearby parks and ate at a little café. We came back to the hostel to change clothes and took off for a day of Waitangi celebration. The first festival was on a park along the beach with Maori music, food, and games.
As we walked back to the hostel, we saw a young couple sitting in a beautiful small Ford van with a For Sale sign on it. We were exhausted from the 7 mile walk, sitting in the sun, and the time change, but Rachel decided we needed to talk to them about this gem. We had always planned on buying a van to travel through NZ, but we didn’t expect to start looking until the weekend was over. The couple ended up being from Norwich, England, the same small city where I spent my junior year of college. He asked if we wanted to take it for a drive around the block, but we deferred thinking that driving on the opposite side with our exhaustion in a big city would be a little too much. He took us for a quick spin and it was perfect!




Saturday, February 7
Again, we woke up around 5:30 without a hope of going back to sleep. I went for a long sunrise walk through a park that looks out over Auckland while Rachel went for a run along the waterfront.
We met up with English couple selling the car and actually spent a good portion of the day with them. After exchanging the money and title to the car, we instantly headed out of the city to re-learn how to drive. We spent hours driving through the quieter neighborhoods and country. We pulled over along the beach and had a lovely picnic on the bed in the back of the van. The van came complete with a stove, kitchenware, foldable chairs, curtains, fishing poles, and a sunroof that opens half the length of the van! By the time we got back, we only had enough energy to cook dinner and stumble back up to bed. We think we’ll be pretty much back to normal by Mon or Tues. We will head north out of Auckland on Monday morning after our official introduction to NZ from our visa sponsor.