Eighteen in the air, 6 hour layover in LA & 2 in Tahiti (why did we not have a 2 day layover there???)...and now we are in Auckland. Dead tired. Found our hotel and a meal, then crashed. I tried to wake Rog around 6 to take a walk...he opened his eyes wide and with sincere fright said, "I'm lost!!"...then fell right back to sleep. No walk. We both slept soundly til 7 a.m. And just like that we were on Auckland time (+18 hrs). Caught a bus to the Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium ...hundreds of darling penguins, Scott's Antartica's original camp display, glass tunnel where sharks, sting rays, turtles & a multitude of richly colored fish swam all around you. All those fish made us hungry...so we went to the fish market for fish & chips and had a nice chat with the young cashier. He told us the minimum wage was $14 NZD (about $9 USA) and 15% is skimmed off top for taxes. No income tax forms at the end of the year. Caught a ferry to an island just a bit from Auckland so got a great view of the harbor and Auckland...but nothing like view we got when we took the glass elevator to the top of the Sky Tower, Looking down at the city from 328 meters made our knees wobble! And people actually hook on to a cable and jump off...really, we saw them! Most amazing was all the sailboats skimming the harbor and to see a few of the 46 volcanoes that created this area...not sure I'd invest in real estate here. Temperature is in the 70's and there is a light breeze that'll make sleeping with our windows open pleasant....
So at the end of our first day, we both felt this trip started out so different than our last 7 trips...felt more like home. It is the first time since our Europe trip back in '73, that we've traveled in a developed country...drank the water right from the tap & didn't need our own supply of TP...and a 8 oz Diet Coke cost $2.50 US!
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