Friday January 5, 2007 - Auckland
After more than 15 hours of traveling, leaving from Los Angeles, I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. I left on December 30th and arrived on January 1st, skipping New Years Eve by flying over the date line, which also saved me a lot in airfare. I am now in the future, 21 hours ahead of Los Angeles (or 3 hours behind, but a day ahead).

Overall the trip was easy, though I was uneasy at each stage thinking of all that could go wrong. But that's the way it works... I was nervous about problems which compelled me to do the work to avoid them. One who worries has less to worry about. Now that I am here I have been able to relax more.

Greg and Karyn picked me up at the airport and have kindly allowed me to stay with them for the first couple weeks until I get my apartment. They live in an awesome house in Devonport, which is just a few minutes walk from the beach in one direction and to shops and restaurants in the other.

My arrival was luckily on good timing. Kiwis have both Jan 1 and 2 as holiday, and many remain on holiday even until Jan 8. This provided Greg and Karyn some time off to take me on some excursions. They gave me a tour of the local neighborhood of Devonport and We also drove to the other side of the island to a great beach.

The scenery here is beautiful and lush. It is hard to quantify in words, but so far what I have seen of New Zealand looks like a cross between Hawaii and England and of course I love it. It is hard not to. The population of New Zealand is only 4 million which is roughly one tenth that of California. This has its advantages and disadvantages of course which I will learn more about in the course of my stay. Initially though I really like it here and am very happy I decided to visit.

Next week I'll be moving into my new apartment down by the water. I have already set up a bank account and have a new cell phone so my basecamp is nearly complete. In the meantime I am considering whether I want to stay here for more than 3 months and apply for a visitor permit. At this point it is looking pretty certain that I will.