Days 9 and 10

Day 9- February 15^th

We got to Auckland at 9:30 and were through customs by 10:30. We had been worried that they would throw away our snacks, but they just glanced at them. I had to bring some food, because of my allergies, So I was glad they let it through. They had to unpack our tents, to check for soil, but were able to do it in 10 minutes. Afterwards we bought a cell phone and spent half-an-hour setting it up. Then we caught a taxi to our hotel.

Our hotel was a budget hotel, and besides being a bit moldy, was clean and nice. We got a three bed room-two singles and a double-for only 60 dollars a night. We went out and did some shopping and set up a bank account. For the rest of the day we just relaxed. We watched some interesting Australian soap operas, which sounded like American Soap operas, except for the accents.

Day 10- Wednesday, February 16^th

We packed our bags and then looked up the best way to the airport. The cap had cost 40 dollars, so we decided to take the bus. We could ride from our hotel to Manukau Shopping Centre, and from their catch the bus to the airport. The busses ran every half-hour, so we could easily get to the airport without too much wait.

We caught the bus at our hotel at 9:30 and got off in Manukau. We saw the airport bus, so we ran over to catch that. We asked the driver if she would take our transfer, and she said no, but we could catch a bus run by a different company, which would also take us to the airport, or so we understood. But when we checked the schedule, only that bus would take us, and another one wouldn’t be there for half-an-hour. Oh well, we still had plenty of time. It was only 9:45, and our flight didn’t leave till 12:30.

When the airport bus pulled up again, we picked up our bags to catch it and realized that we were missing one; the one that Sheeshao was carrying. We realized that we had left it on the last bus. We got the phone number for the bus company, but it took us ten minutes to figure out how to call the number. After we did, we found out that we had to ride to the bus depot and pick up the bag. We caught a bus, which dropped us off a kilometer from the depot. It was now 11:00. We walked the ten minutes to the depot, then waited another fifteen minutes for the bus to show up and us to get the bag. We called a taxi at 11:20, but it didn’t show up until 11:40.

On the drive to the airport, my dad tried to get ahold of my mom. She got to the airport at 7:00 and just stayed there. She didn’t have our cell phone number, since she had been out of contact since we got it. We tried calling the airport, but the airline we were on was a cheap one, and we only got an answering machine. We finally got to the airport at 12:06, six minutes past the cut-off for catching the plane. Thankfully, the airline was really disorganized and a lot of the other people had been waiting in line for an hour. My mom had been doing that, and they allowed us to move to the front of the line and we caught the plane. My mom had been really worried that we weren’t going to make it, because we would have had to buy new tickets and pay for the ones we missed.

On the plane, they charged you for drinks, but it was only an hour flight, so we didn’t buy any. I think overall, flying on the airline was worth it, since we only had to pay sixty dollars per seat.

We checked into a hostel a Christchurch, which had a shared kitchen and bathroom. It was mostly occupied by Japanese people who would stay there for months at a time. It was really nice, and we only paid 22 dollars per bunk.

While in Auckland, I will try to set up a map of our trip. I also, as you might of noticed, added a new background. It was one of the free backgrounds that came with the blog. It sort of looks like New Zealand, don't you think? But it's actually a picture of the Moher cliffs of Ireland. As soon as I see some beautiful scenery (besides buildings and stores).