It was a long trip, but YAY, we are here.

The trip to Auckland was non eventful.

After 18 hours of flying we got here.

I am sending a letter off to Air New Zealand though.. the plane is segmented, with curtained off areas every 10 rows or so, so 100 people in each area.3-4-3- configeration

we had a man in our area that had not showered or changed for months and the stench was overwhelming. The ground staff should not have let him board, it was horrible. Hannah and I covered our noses with tissues all the way and the stwardesses sprayed this disgusting air freshener over and over that actually just intensified by the end.

the longest 12 hour flight ever... they moved the people either side of him, its wrong to have let him fly. we smelt him in the terminal, about 30 feet away, and it was a gagger in there with 50 foot ceilings and air con.

ANYWAY

we are at the Grosvenor Hotel, nice, old, I think it was apartments, and we have a 2 room suite. We went to Old Navy to grab the kids some long sleeved Tshirts, and gloves and hats for the snow next week(read that as sleet).

Its pretty warm here, sunny clear,you need a coat or jacket, but its a beautiful day

Here is a pic of the view from our suite.

Oh, and there is a man on the footpath, who has been asleep there for the past 3 hours, I was a bit worried till he rolled over a few times.The trip in from the airport takes you through some sad parts of town, lots of men sitting in the streets, there must be a shelter nearby, and some fabulous graffiti.

Such a contrast to downtown shopping mecca

we walked down 6 blocks, and I mean down, and then walked back..almost straight up..Tomorrow we get cable car passes and really get out there.

Everyone is shopping! everyone is spending...

Recession??? What Recession?