Settling in to Auckland

Gooday from the Land of the Long White Cloud!  We’ve been in New Zealand for five days and it’s been great so far.  Our flight from Hawaii to Auckland was delayed by several hours, but once we got to Auckland, everything has gone smoothly.  We were met at the airport by an old friend of a friend named Mat, who gave us a ride to our rental house where we met Lynette, my collaborator, and her daughter Georgia (who were just leaving for a week’s vacation), as well as our rental agent.  We also unpacked our luggage, which didn’t take very long since we each only had one 50lb. checked bag and one 15lb. carry-on bag!  It was nice to spread out and not sleep in the same hotel room for the first time in a week.

For the past few days, we’ve been exploring different parts of Auckland, while trying to get settled in and oriented.  We’ve been going to the public library in our region of the city, St. Heliers, each day to catch up on emails and do some research.  We live very close to several nice beaches in Auckland including St. Heliers, Kohimarama Beach, and Mission Bay.  In addition to strolling up and down the beaches every day, we’ve also checked out several of the many public parks in Auckland, including Albert Park, Michael Savage Memorial Park, and One Tree Hill (the inspiration for the U2 song).  Here's Luke near the summit of One Tree Hill.

On our first day in Auckland, we stumbled upon an amazing French bistro in our neighborhood named La Fourchette, where Ashlyn drank, quite possibly, the most beautiful (and best tasting) café mocha of her life.  New Zealanders take their coffee very seriously, but that’s for another episode.

Mat has loaned us his car for the next three weeks while he is in Australia, so I have started driving a few places.  So far, driving on the left side of the road hasn’t been nearly as difficult as I was expecting.  I actually think I’m adjusting much faster to driving than to some of the other differences (Celsius, the metric system, etc.).  Today we drove to an area of the city known as the North Shore, where we explored the remnants of Fort North Head, had a picnic lunch and strolled up and down Narrow Neck Beach, and then walked around the shops in Takapuna.  You get great views of Rangitoto Island (just across the water from downtown Auckland) from many places in Auckland, including the North Shore beaches.

We hope that all of our friends back in the States are warm and dry and we look forward to catching up with many of you via Facetime and Skype in the coming weeks and months.

Cheers,

Kevin