Thursday 9 April, 5:30 pm (local time), Auckland Public Library (free internet access!)

Greetings from Auckland!

It's hard to believe that our 3.5 month adventure has finally begun! Here's an update of what's been going on so far...

We left Toronto on Monday 6 April, and spent 1 day and 1 night in L.A. (which was fabulous, daaaarling!). We took a day tour with VIP tours (who seem to have a monopoly of the tacky tour bus market), and saw the key sights/attractions: Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Blvd, drove through Beverly Hills, had lunch at the lovely Farmer's Market and wandered through The Grove. Hightlights of L.A.: The friendly people (everyone was so gosh darn nice! We even made a new friend... Shane from Perth, Australia, who was on his way to Panama to be a father (looong story). He will have travelled 52 hours when he finally reaches Panama!), our crazy/quirky hotel, and, of course, the sunshine!

On Tuesday night we jumped on a plane for a 13 hour flight to Auckland. The flight was actually quite painless... Qantas sure know how to keep their passengers happy... lots of food, goodie bags (filled with toiletries, and snacks), and smiles! Funny enough, because of the time zones, we actually "missed" the 8th of April... we left L.A. on the 7th and magically arrived in Auckland on the 9th! We're 16 hours ahead of Toronto.

Once we got to our hotel we crashed until 12 noon, then ventured out to have lunch (found a nice sushi restaurant by the harbour front), and have been wandering quite aimlessly since then trying to dodge the schizophrenic weather (bright sunshine, followed by hail, followed by light rain?). Tomorrow's plan is to view the city from the Sky Tower (which is uncanningly familiar to a little tower in Toronto... copy cats!), and then to head out to Rangitoto Island for a proper hike (or "tramping" as it's referred to here). Apparently the island is so "un"-commercial that they don't even sell water; You have to bring everything yourself, including your meals! Should be interesting to play survivor for an afternoon ;-)

That's all for now! Lots of love!

Jennifer & Daniel x