Arrived

So...our first 36 hours in our new country.  So many impressions under the influence of jet lag, new love, and displacement.  Auckland.   Love it.  Cosmopolitan, beautiful, clean, international.  Just going to post pictures.  We took off on a smooth and painless 13 hour flight from LAX Saturday night (28 June 2014), arriving Monday morning (30 June 2014) and skipped Sunday entirely.  Hope to get that day back sometime.  When we got off the plane it smelled of flowers...literally.  We fetched our 15 pieces of checked luggage and got a shuttle to take us to our hotel--cool vans towing small trailers.  I highly recommend the "serviced apartments" in these parts:  kitchen,  laundry, bedroom, balcony overlooking Auckland harbor.   They checked us in to our room at 9 am. !  We swam, got our rental van, and toured the city in a soft rain, reciting our mantra "LOOK RIGHT, DRIVE LEFT."

We visited an aquarium with actual penguins, sharks, and saw an amazing museum near the university.  We ate delicious Asian food (sorely lacking in our past life) with Korean BBQ, Chinese and Asian all at one "Food Alley," and then fell asleep at 6:30 pm (which was midnight Mountain time).

Everyone slept until a decent hour this morning and then we watched World Cup soccer.  Mike and I ran along the pier drinking in the industrial art, blue (really!) Pacific water, museums, boats, parks, greenery, smartly dressed people, lack of trash, lack of homelessness, and high density of delicious coffee shops.  It rained.  Seamus declared, "Well, at least THEY aren't in a drought," the moment he stepped off the plane.  There are amazing coffee shops and an array of coffee and frothy drinks...did I mention that already?  We met with a legal representative of the Medical Council of New Zealand to make sure we weren't lying criminals.  Then we ascended the Skytower to look over all of Auckland.  Mike and Cully donned special suits and harnesses to take the "Sky Walk" around the perimeter of the tower.  Then we ate a glorious meal at The Depot--3 types of oysters, 2 types of clams, marrow, brussel sprouts, fish sliders, Marlborough sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.  Holy crap.