 |
| Auckland's Grand Theater by night, still decorated with a Christmas tree on Jan. 2! |
| Erin's Journal 01-02-03 New Zealand Today we would fly to New Zealand, resuming our journey of the world (or at least the parts we can get to!). We started the day early, and I called the doctor's office for results from the lab test I'd taken. There was no conclusive result, as I found out an hour later when the doc was free to call back. Oh well! We had arranged with Rose to transfer a few more journals via her computer, as Glenn had caught up with his and I'd managed to type a few more. We showed up there at 10, then spent only a little while transferring. Their wonderful computer made it a snap! We thanked them and arranged to go out and have them show us the town when we returned from NZ. Then we headed for the train station, and booked downtown to do more website updates. We had to be back at John & Elaine's by 5, but planned to be there by 4 so we could finish packing in a leisurely fashion, so we had to hurry. Well of course we got hooked in to the website, and didn't leave downtown till 4pm! We arrived back at the house before Elaine though, and were ready in time to get to the airport plenty early. Our flight wasn't till 7:30, and we were checking our bags in by 5:30pm. I browsed the airport bookstore while we waited for the flight, and the flight itself didn't seem to take long. One ironic note: the in-flight movie turned out to be Sweet Home Alabama, which we'd just paid to see 2 nights ago on New Year's Eve! But with the exception of a few nasty bumps in the middle, the flight was fine, and we arrived in NZ at 1:30am local time. With no hotel or hostel booked, we headed straight for the tourist information booth, which luckily was open. We called about 8 hostels before finding one that was open, then happened upon a rapidly filling shuttle bus to take us into town. We arrived at almost 2:30am, and it took almost 30 minutes for our turn to check in, as the place was packed with waiting backpackers!!! We stayed at the Fat Camel, and when we pulled up, noticed it was right next to a BROTHEL!!! They called it a massage parlor, but one of the 'masseuses' came out in her tiny sequined dress as we pulled up, and it was plain that she didn't do much work at 'softening people up' with her hands!!! No problem...the door to our hostel is locked at night, and once we got upstairs we couldn't hear the loud rocking music. We put our sheets on our beds in a tiny 4-bed room with no windows, just a fan, in the dark, trying not to disturb the two guys already sleeping in there. Then we crashed, with barely a 'goodnight' for each other! |