Try!

Well in America it might be "Touchdown" but since the game here is rugby I thought we'd adapt our title appropriately. We arrived in Auckland on time but sans one big purple backpack. Qantas wasn't sure where it was but said they would track it down. Since we were going to be in the area and there wasn't anything critical in it, we're not overly worried. Unlike the band that flew with us which was supposed to be playing the next night and didn't have their microphones. We shared our string cheese with them since we thought customs might take it away anyway. Turns out the inspector just looked at the skinny tubes of white cheese in plastic and said "This must be from the States." It's still pretty amazing realizing we got on a big metal tube, ate dinner, slept, had breakfast, and poof we're on the other side of the world!

We picked up our rental car and dove into the adventure of driving on the left side of the road! We were lucky to be able to get an automatic so that I had one less thing to keep track of. Everytime we did any turning, I'd tell Megan out loud which direction I was going and which lane (hugging the curb for left and across traffic for right) I was going to head for. Since the driver is on the right side of the car, there are all sorts of little things to get used to. Instead of looking right for the rear view mirror, it is left. I kept trying to signal my lane changes with my windshield wipers until I realized that the turn signal was on my left not my right. Roundabouts go the opposite direction and everytime a car comes over a hill at us on the right side of the road my heartrate spikes a little! Needless to say, we're not checking out very much scenery when we're driving yet.

Megan did a great job navigating to Mike's place, our contact in Auckland. He gave us plenty of suggestions of places to go on both islands and even put us in contact with some other Kiwis. Mike took us on a tiki-tour of Auckland's One Tree Hill and waterfront. There were several of these green hills scattered around the city. They (and the rest of New Zealand) were formed by volcanic action. We shared a wonderful dinner of lamb chops, potatoes, asparagrus, and salad and capped the evening off with watching a rugby game. When Megan asked why they don't wear pads, Mike said grinningly - Well we're not like those American pussycats. Megan and I have been amazed at the hospitality that he and his wife Linda have shown.

Photo above is from top of One Tree Hill.

The hill was a park but also pasture with sheep roaming all over.