I'm Here

After much rushing, packing, and realizing that I needed to leave half of my clothes at home, I arrived at Logan on monday. The flight to Charlotte was uneventful but when we arrived it was raining hard. My next flight sat on the runway for an hour in line for take-off. During the flight I read almost all of Into Thin Air which definitely kept my attention and helped me to ignore the five children, three and under that were within a few rows of me. I arrived in LA with plenty of time to haul all of my luggage across the airport to the international terminal. We left the terminal a few hours later to take a ten minute bus ride to our plane which was inexplicably eerie in the yellow light of early evening with a bunch or strangers all standing in this large, dark airport vehicle. The plane was huge and new and I had my own tv and two seats to stretch out. I was able to get some sleep which made my first day in Auckland much happier. I got through customs only to realize that my NZ cell didn't keep more than five minutes of charge and I didn't know the pin # for my new debit card. I changed the american money I had which was miraculously enough to catch a shuttle into town and ring the friend I was meeting. I arrived at the sky tower (this big, sort of futuristic looking building in the middle of Auckland) and walked a mile to my friend's work to get his key so I could recover from the jet lag in the apartment. Turns out, I wasn't tired all day so after writing an email or two and eating lunch I headed out to explore Auckland. I walked to Queen Street, the Newbury street equivalent of Auckland, explored the city center and bought myself a new cell phone (which I discovered is free for incoming calls so if it is inexpensive for you to call New Zealand, my number is +64 02102431732). I then walked back to Stormer and Emma's along the bay and the area and apartment buildings reminded me a lot of the new, modern, buildings being built on the bay in Boston. When they both got home from work we celebrated with some champagne in their apartment and then headed out to this posh Thai restaurant which was beautiful. At about ten I was almost in my food I was so tired so we walked back but it was a wonderful night and so fun to catch up and see them again. I am now off to whatever fun they have planned for me today!