We've arrived!

We're here! There's not much to say about the flight. I can't make it sound too terrible otherwise none of you will come visit me. But in all seriousness, apart from United serving three different varieties of dog food for all three in-flight meals and all the movies being in Spanish, it wasn't bad.

Auckland is nice. It's pretty much a city with skyscrapers and all that jazz, but the look is mixed up a bit with a few antique-looking buildings thrown in here and there. And, of course, the Sky City Tower, which is pretty much New Zealand's version of the Space Needle.

This is what it looks like (the picture isn't crooked; the tower is):

In the foreground you can see some boats. Auckland is called the City of Sails Masts.

Also, you guys don't have to worry about me getting homesick for the States. During our wanderings we found no less than four Burger Kings, three McDonald's, three Starbucks, a Wendy's, a Borders, an EB Games, a Foot Locker, a Dunkin Donuts, and even a Denny's. In a truly American fashion, most of these places are within three or four blocks of each other, which is convenient just in case you can't walk that extra hundred feet to squelch your Big Mac craving.
Check it:

Apart from sampling Auckland's finest cuisine, we were pretty productive today. We opened bank accounts, sent in our applications for our IRD number (the New Zealand equivilent of social security), and started the process of acquiring a used car. Hopefully we'll wrap that up tomorrow so we can begin our journey towards Wellington. Of course, it may be a very short journey ending with our car wrapped around the trunk of a palm tree. Hey, I can't be expected to drive on the wrong side of the road for the first time without a few minor bumps.

That's about it for now. I'll update again when I can.

As a parting gift, here's an awesome little anecdote:

On the way back from checking out cars, we took a shortcut through a park. As I was coming out of a little bathroom they had there, I spotted Alexa taking my picture. I know, she's weird. It can't be helped. But it gets weirder. A woman was walking by, and when she spotted Alexa snapping the picture, she took off her headphones and said, "That's so cool!"

Alexa and I didn't say anything, and she continued, "Everytime my boyfriend comes out of the bathroom I take his picture and whenever I come out of the bathroom he takes a picture of me! I've never seen anyone else do that before." Yeah, probably because you're fucking crazy, lady.

As it turns out, she's from New York. But seriously. I can't make this stuff up.