Day 39: New Country, New Zealand

I awoke to the turning on of the cafe lights above us, and saw it was roughly 4:30 AM. Fair enough, time to get going. Well, apparently I dozed off again, and had an elaborate dream which justified my being there. In this dream reality, the lights woke me up, and Jack and I spoke to a worker who asked if we'd like anything to eat. Jack, the food connoisseur he is, asked "what should we get," and the worker answered "well our most popular item is the egg yogurt," which was apparently Jack's favorite breakfast dish that he can't find anywhere, so we ordered two and fell back asleep until our order was ready. I awoke to Tyler tapping my foot, telling us we probably needed to get up because the restaurant was in full swing, and I replied "we ordered breakfast, it should be here any minute now..." Of course I was half awake and running on two hours of sleep, so I can imagine my face and demeanor must have been hilarious. I woke Jack up, asked if we had ordered breakfast, found out there was no such thing as egg yogurt (don't even ask where that came from), and proceeded to gather my things and turn over a substantial portion of the restaurant's seating. We seemed to be off to a great start.

With heavy eyes and little sleep, we boarded an Airbus A380, the largest plane I've ever encountered. The double-decker plane can transport like 600 or more passengers comfortably, and the entire upper floor is business and first class with bars, showers, and lounges. Needless to say, I was a pheasant down stairs and completely content. They say United Emirates Airways has one of the most reputable service satisfaction ratings, and it was easy to understand why. We landed in Auckland, which was 3 hours ahead of Brisbane time, and made our way to customs. As it turns out: New Zealand is extremely protective over what enters the country, as they don't want any foreign debris from other countries to infiltrate the native landscape and ecology. Apparently honey fits into this category due to the bacteria in it. Of course, I purchased some in Tasmania, because Eucalyptus honey is uncommon and apparently very tasty. I even managed to leave it unopened until now so I could share it with my parents when I returned home. This plan didn't work out so well, as I declared having it ($400 fine if you don't and they find it with xray or dogs) and had to go through their biosecurity quarantine and inspection area. I met with an employee who searched my bag and upon inspecting the honey, told me I couldn't keep it. They were nice enough to offer to store it for me until I departed, but my return flight to Australia is from Queenstown so to the trash it went. Slight bummer, sorry mom.

We made it to our place, Waldorf Apartments, a mere 10 minute walk from downtown Auckland. The amenities here are superb: free wifi, pool, my own queen bedroom, an 11th story view of the city, and operable windows. The temperature here is between 60-75 F for the majority of our stay, so we are happy campers. Settled in, we walked around the city, found food, and returned to recuperate from our long travel day and prepare for the busy 11 days ahead of us. New Zealand is going to be amazing.