Hello everyone!  We have arrived in New Zealand!  The trip was long with three separate flights and one lasting over 13 hours straight.  Luckily, this was an overnight trip so we slept for a portion of it.  Those of you who have flown a  red-eye know that trying to sleep on a plane can be a frustrating thing.  Alas, with the help of Tylenol PM, we got a good 4 or 5 hours straight.

Our first view of NZ came when flying into the Aukland airport where we would grab our connecting flight to Wellington.  The landscape can only be described as “majestic.”  Wonderous rolling hillsides and strange craggy mountains, a volcano, fantastic greenery.  This place is like where God came up with the ideas for everywhere else in the world.  So many geological wonders in one place!  We can’t wait to get out to the bay and explore.  This place kind of seems like a real-life version of Settlers of Catan or maybe I’m just being super nerdy, but seriously, I have seen sheep, wheat, rocks, and wood thus far…

Here are some pics from our hotel room. We are staying at the Bolton Hotel, right in the center of Wellington.  Wellington is like a jungley San Francisco and/or Cinque Terra, Italy.  I cannot make rhyme or reason out of how the streets work because in addition to being like the roads in Boston (one ways, rotaries, etc.), they drive on the opposite side of the road! It is  extremely hilly and lush as you can see from below.  We took a walk to find dinner last night and got a few lessons in the NZ way.  For example, they don’t tip here!  And they don’t bring the check to you.  hehe.  We’re hoping to get more tips and tricks from Mike’s friends today and tomorrow so we can better assimilate.  We definitely felt weird not leaving a gratuity.  More exploration today, of course.  The botanical gardens are right behind our hotel (in the direction of the images below). Last night we crashed out at 7:30PM.  eeek!  Sorry we don’t have more but we didn’t have time to do much yesterday with all the tiredness. We will post more tomorrow.

Views from our window! Left

Middle

Right

After the sun came out!

Small church and cemetery below.

So that’s it for now.  We are going to get out there and see what Wellington has to offer!

Be back soon!  Oh and if you want to post a reply, just click on the title of the post and follow the instructions.

XOXO

Candice & Mike