Auckland

We ate a delicious breakfast at the Fortuna Restaurant at our hotel. Sky Tower Hotel is a beautiful absolutely beautiful. It has local art throughout the place. http://get.in2.net/index.php? is the link for the place. We decided to take a trip on the bus to the Auckland Museum.

http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/ It is a wonderful old building dedicated to the soldiers of New Zealand. We were guided by a Maori docent into the War Memorial area of the museum. We did see some extraordinary photographs by Lee Miller. She was a war correspondent through WWII. The museum also has a excellent Maori collection. We returned to the hotel to crash for a bit. David watched the Spurs Game in the bar. Go Spurs Go. Dea Jae and I walked down to the Victoria Park Market. This is a cute shopping experience filled with local art. It is a group of buildings that share an alley like road. http://www.victoria-park-market.co.nz/index.cfm

Tomorrow we start our "Big" tour. See Ya!

I have arrived!

I'm writing this on Wednesday June 13 at 7:45 a.m. I'm writing in the future...ha ha.

I am a bit hazy about how long we were on the plane from LA to Auckland. We were figuring 22 hours but it ended up being around 12 to 13 hours. Much better results I must say. Quantas has a really nice set up. Everyone has their own video player. It can show movies, TV shows, music and computer games. We were served two hot meals and snacks in between. I actually ate off a metal fork and spoon. The knives were plastic.

I tried to stay awake as long as possible. I didn't really sleep. I watched "Zodiac", a documentary about Australia and tried to play solitaire. I read when I wasn't dozing. I'm feeling a bit "hung over" from the lack of sleep. I'm looking forward to coffee and lots of it. I'll post again once I've got an impression of Auckland. Hopefully I'll have pictures too.

Math and Science Question

I leave Los Angeles, California at 21:05 on June 11 and arrive in Auckland, New Zealand at 4:45 on Wednesday June 13. Here are my questions: What time am I leaving in US time. How long am I actually on the plane? Am I traveling through time? What is happening to cause the time change?

New Zealand Tour

On Monday I take off for my great adventure. First stop is Auckland New Zealand. Go to http://www.horizon.co.nz/rc21.asp to see the outline of our tour in New Zealand. I am curious to find out how the current time will translate over the web. Once I arrive in Auckland it will be June 13, 4:45 a.m. I'm not sure how physically we all will be at that time. I suspect we we'll conk out until noon.

A word about using a travel agents. They are fantastic! Once we outlined what we (Dea Jae, David, Dad and I) wanted to accomplish, Cheryl at AJ Travel did a fableous job. She had to deal with Dad up in Iowa and the rest of us here in SA. Dad had his passport from his last adventure abroad. Dea Jae need to renew hers and David and I needed a new one. David did a fast track on his back in March. He got it weeks later. I had to pay out the nose to get mine in a week. Dea Jae just got hers a week ago. The travel agency handled getting the visas, plane tickets, and vochures for our different tours. We received a nice travel wallet to hold our tickets and itinerary. I suppose we could have managed getting tickets through a website and travel by the seat of our pants. But I'm sure we'd miss out on a great deal. Quantas is like Southwest Airlines. They have one way cheap seats. This is much better than traveling by train.

If you haven't gotten your passport, start the process now. It is worth it. Living so close to the Mexico border, many San Antonians are wise to get one. Go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070608/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_passports;_ylt=AtZJc8b2L8MJI9gHXIki6Z5I2ocA to learn about how passports are currently being relaxed.

May blogging begin

Hello everyone,
This is my first blog. I am planning to use this site to keep family and friends up to date on my trip to New Zealand and Australia. I will post pictures and make comments on what I see. I am currently getting my house ready for my house-sitter. She'll be taking care of my three cats, Banshi, Cleo and Hurricane. She will also make sure my house is still standing when I come home.
I leave Monday June 11. I arrive in Auckland New Zealand on June 13. I'll check in at the airport or hotel once I've arrived.