First day in New Zealand 2011

Friday, September 9th, 2011 we boarded the plane in Calgary for our connection flight in Vancouver to Auckland, New Zealand.  We joined up in Vancouver with our friends Mark, Janice, Jacob and Samantha.  The airport was a sauna and wearing my hiking boots to save weight wasn't the best option.  The 4 hour layover flew by and soon we were boarding the 777 to Auckland.  I was surprised there wasn't much legroom on the plane and the usual kids crying made for somewhat stressful flight.  The food was pretty good, but the attendants were fantastic, Tegan and Samantha had balloon animals created for them and that got bonus points.

We landed in Auckland just after 5am and made our way through customs without any problems.  We got equipped at Vodafone with datastick and cell phone then hired a taxi to take us down to Spaceships' Auckland depot.  Tegan was anxious at the airport and that translated into about a 20 minute wait outside the depot in the rain.  We had a bit of cover thankfully and when we finally greeted by staff it was a welcome sight. We opted out of getting the winter package, as we knew we would be coming back through Auckland later in the week and thought we could pick the kit up then if it was needed. 

Our first order of business one might think should be groceries etc.  Nope.  We headed out to the coast aiming for Karekare, but missed that turn and landed on Piha beach instead.

The beach was beautiful and rugged.  There were 4-5 surfers out there working out the waves.  Tegan began hunting the beach for trinkets and I snapped photos of scenery.

We didn't exchange our money at the airport, so we were running on credit at the moment.  We were peckish but had no luck at the local bakery, so off we went to meet Mark and Janice + kids at Tree Adventures. 

Driving on the left hand side of the road took a constant concentration to achieve... then we stopped into a petro station picked up some snacks and whamo!  I was attempting to drive around cars on the right and what eventually would have led us into a bus, hadn't I corrected my error in time.  Tegan's comment was that I was "back in Calgary!"

Tree Adventures!  

Tegan loved this pitstop!  She was educated on safe tethering and how to use a flying fox on the practice course, then off we went to begin our escapades in the trees.  Tegan giggled, screamed with joy and shot out bashes to me as we made our way through each of the 4 courses.

I think Tegan wants a backyard big enough to have a setup like this.  It was great fun and a great way to get some exercise after the long trip.

Mark and Janice + kids were a no show.  We were lucky to escape the rain, as it was raining all morning on the drive to the park.  The 4 courses easily ate up about 2 hours and now we were heading up to our first campsite Kauri Coast Top 10 Holiday Park.


We arrived at the campervan park just before dusk, M&J+k were not here either.  We figured we were going to be alone for the evening, having not bought any food as of yet, we were pointed to the local tavern where we should be able to make the supper call.  Only as we exited the campsite, M&J+k showed up!


Lucky for us, they brought food!  So, I got a little bit of organizing in while the kids played on the 4 trampolines and M&J made dinner, we ate a delicious dinner and then that was the end of day 1.