Longest plane ride ever? Check. Longest of the trip? Not quite. First impression of New Zealand? Everyone is incredibly cheerful and nice especially considering our 5 am arrival time. Seeing signs and hearing people speak English seems confusing now, and like everything should be hard to understand. The main thing upon getting off the plane was understanding the coffee nomenclature of "long blacks" and "flat whites", and that ketchup is called tomato sauce.

Everything just seems pleasant here with moderate temperatures and people that actually follow laws and there is an apparent lack of dirt roads and packs of stray dogs, which they should really work on. Of course everything costs a small fortune compared to anywhere in South America. I bought one Mach 3 razor and a small thing of shaving cream for $35, but my beard growing experiment has proven itself an awkward failure. I think Leah shed a brief tear upon seeing what she used to know as my face.

It is a welcome change from America that no tipping is expected anywhere and the GST tax (15%) always included in the prices so you just know what you are paying with even amounts and none of this $.99 crap added to every price. You pay for your meal up front most times, get the complementary water yourself, typically with lemon and lime, and if you ever need anything else you just ask. No one bothers you or wants to move you along to get more tips, and people can actually live off their wages. They are all still extremely nice though.

Auckland is a very livable city filled with amazing restaurants and coffee on every corner, which we dove into after being surrounded by mystery meat ham and cheese and powdered Nescafé for over a month. Argentina, and Chile to a lesser degree, have some of the most boring and flavorless food around with such little variety across the length of both countries. Although we have heard rumors from other travelers that the food Bolivia is yet more flavorless.

In addition, gluten free is understood by people and present on most menus with at least one full gluten free grocery in town. We stayed in an old house converted into a hostel in the neighborhood of Mt. Eden just outside the city, and at the foot of the small dormant volcano of the same name, which provided spectacular views of the entire city being the highest point. Auckland is surrounded by near 50 volcanoes and built over a giant magma chamber. We took a ferry out to one of the volcanic islands and hiked up to the summit for amazing views of the city and other surrounding islands. The island is one of the youngest in the world only being formed 600 years ago. It still had that new land smell to it. I could see calling Auckland home. Good things for EY as well as what appears to be a newly built office sits on the harbour above a coffee shop and near a microbrewery with a sign on the front of the EY office building that it closes at 5:30 every weekday and weekends. I'm sure everyone is out by then.

We were there for Auckland day with beautiful skies, which allowed us to see all of Auckland's beautiful yachts and boats out on the water that it is famous for having. We also got a slice of regular life by staying in the little residential neighborhood in the same house for a few days, and we went to see a movie (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). In New Zealand they have different classes of movie theaters with amazing big leather seats and you pick your own assigned seats when you buy the tickets so there are no people walking around trying to decide the best seats to sit in or couple debates while the movie is playing. We still have yet to sit in the Gold Class theatre, but I imagine you also receive a massage while enjoying the movie.

We bought a seven day train pass to head south and enjoy New Zealand's awesome natural beauty on places the road can't touch. Off to Wellington!