New Zealand Pt. 1: I'm leavin' on a jet plane. . .

Kia Ora!

So I am officially back on U.S. soil and I have so much to share. . .

We left on Friday, November 14th, flying out of Des Moines to Denver, then to LAX where we boarded our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland.  Fun Fact: It is a 13 HOUR flight from Los Angeles to Auckland.  Fortunately for us though we boarded at about 10:30 PM after we had been traveling for about 12 hours which meant by the time we got on our last plane we were all ready to pass out.  However, I quickly found out that trying to sleep sandwiched between Courtney and Amber would prove to be difficult since I woke up about 5 times during the night, but all in all it could have been much worse.

    

      

We landed in Auckland at 8 AM on Sunday, November 16th, which means we lost an entire day when we crossed the international date line.  Once we got off the plane and through customs, we met our bus driver, Wayne.  Wayne is the type of guy that you instantly like.  He used to be a truck driver, but now works as a tour bus driver and you can tell that this guy has been around.  If you have a question, just ask Wayne; chances are, he knows the answer.

The group with Wayne in front of our Go bus

The first thing we did, was head for Raglan beach to have fish and chips for lunch.  So I'm a picky eater and I can't stand fish, but I promised myself before I left for this trip that I was going to try everything that was put in front of me.  Turns out that if the fish is heavily battered and deep fat fried, it's pretty good.

We kind of demolished the fish and chips

We then spent the afternoon at the beach.  The only issue was, it's the beginning of spring in New Zealand, which means it was sunny but only about 60 degrees F, which also means that the water was freezing.  Most of us opted out of any actual swimming and just admired the scenery instead.

 

Representing State all the way in New Zealand

 

We ended the day at Good George, a brewery/restaurant in Hamilton, a few blocks over from the Microtel we were staying at while in the Waikato Region.  I'm a big fan of hard cider, because it isn't as bitter as beer, but if it's done right it's not overly sweet. The Kiwis (another term for New Zealanders)  have definitely perfected the hard cider, and I loved it.  Once again I decided to be adventurous and try the lamb rump roast.  Yeah, it was definitely not for me.

                       

Stay tuned for more New Zealand blogs! I'm going to try and get at least one up every week for the next month or so!

Night,y'all!