We're Here!

We are in Auckland, have showered :), spent our first night and got great sleep! Our flights were good, all one could hope for when cooped up in a plane seat for 13:20 hours. Even got in 10 minutes early! Our first impressions were formed early; we're glad they speak English :) We were asked right away what we think of Mr. Obama, and everybody in the airport shuttle (one young American woman, two British women, and the driver) agreed with us that we like him. Then our friendly hotel receptionist, when asked where we might eat, assumed that we wanted burgers, being American and all. Later yesterday afternoon (we got in to the city by 11 AM. after customs, etc) we walked around near the hotel downtown and decided to go up the sky tower (similar to the space needle in Seattle) to get the lay of the land, as Auckland sits surrounded by water in the middle of the north island. Well, we ran to get the elevator, and that happened to be a minute before 2 PM when they were observing a moment of silence for the Pike River miners. Guess what, our elevator got stuck right at 2 PM. For about 10 minutes, we stood with about 8 others, including a security guy which helped keep us calmer, I think. Plus the fact that we had a window to look out over the bay!

Right now we are re-packing our FOUR large bags, and waiting for a woman who is the widow of a Vikse (Verna's maternal side) to come pick us up! Later today we'll go to stay with a friend of a friend for the next two nights, and she is planning tea for us tonight :) Can't wait! We'll head to Wellington on Sunday, where Kevin will do 3 days of orientaion. Some photos will follow, sometime! Stay warm, all of you :)