Day 0 - 1: The Send Off and Arrival to Auckland

Hello from New Zealand! I absolutely cannot believe we are here. It's been a crazy and awesome first few days. I've been dying to post some pictures but the internet in a few of the places we've stayed has been a little spotty. Tonight, we're staying at the Duxton Hotel in Wellington, a pretty bustling city at the tip of the North Island. We just arrived via ferry from spending a couple days on the GORGEOUS South Island and will be headed back towards Auckland in the morning.

It will probably take me a couple posts to catch up from the past week. Also, I will spare you the oh, I don't know, 850 pictures we've taken already. I will try to narrow it down for the sake of your time and my sanity. I'm hoping this will create somewhat of a travel journal for us, which will be awesome to look back on!

We've rented car at the airport and have been basically road-tripping it all around, trying to see as much as we can in the little time we have. I'll start with our send-off and try to post a little about each day we've had here. Thanks for sharing in this trip with us! We've appreciated all your prayers for safe travels and great memories.

Brian, Beth and family came to the airport to see us off, which meant a lot! Beth let me get one last baby-fix before I left by letting me hold Sayge as much as possible. He's too cute! They all are!

Mom was our lovely chaffeur to the airport.

This is what we saw when we "hopped off the plane at LAX..."

Our lovely Mitzibushi Lancer. We love our little car. I've nicknamed him Lance. Patrick says I'm weird. Notice the stirring wheel...on the other side. We keep forgetting and going to the wrong sides of the car. We've now learned to play it off and Patrick pretends like he meant to do that to open the door for me. Ever the gentleman.

Arrival in Auckland at 6:00 A.M. I'm looking cold already.

Patrick, of course in shorts like usual, waiting to rent our car.

Learning to drive on the left side of the road was a little stressful for all involved. When we first got in the car Patrick said something like, "Ok. Do not talk me. Do not give me directions. Do not yell at me. I don't know what I'm doing here. I need to concentrate." About 2 seconds into the driving he yelled, "Where am I supposed to go?? You have to give me directions!!"

We've worked through it. We now feel somewhat like pros. By we, I mean Patrick. I've only driven once for about 50 kilometers.

We finally arrived via several alternative routes at the Hilton in Auckland which was Very. Nice. Located on Princes Wharf overlooking the water.

We destressed by sharing a yummy pizza for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water. It was a pretty chilly and overcast day.

The view from our hotel room balcony.

Where I spent most of my time the first day trying to recover from jet lag.

We had a great corner room overlooking Auckland.

The view from our room at night.

We had a fancy date-like meal at The Wine Chambers. It was AMAZING. They gave us free wine samples. That is a picture of what was left of my white chocolate ginger cheesecake. Patrick was all aglow in the wonderfulness of his latte.

We walked back to our hotel and promptly fell asleep into what I happily refer to as a food coma.