Auckland museum and sky tower

I'm Today started with breakfast at the hotel. I feel the need to mention that the eggs were strange. They looked like they had cheese in them but they didn't. I regret I didn't take a picture actually. They also have muselli, but we would call it porrege. Pretty much oats, orange peel and or juice and its soaked. It's actually pretty good you put nuts and dried fruit in it.  Anyway, cec and I have been very hungry when we get up so breakfast has been big.

Then we took über, yes they have that here, to the Auckland museum.

(Sign for the museum)

 Great exhibits on Maori. Actually eveything was in English and their native language like the sign above. We did a tour with a nice tour guide who pointed out highlights, then saw a Maori show which highlighted culture through song and dance. 

(The show during a war dance called the haka)

(The show during a display of how they keep in shape, using games like with sticks)

We caught lunch in the cafe, then spent three more hours walking through the museum. I got a chicken burger (chicken sand which) and cec got a kiwi burger, basically a burger with an egg on it. Good food but the ketchup, which they call tomatoe sauce was GROSS. We also had a traditional pastry called Eccles. It has a fruit mixture and was actually pretty good.

(Cecils kiwi burger and yes that's a local beer, he said it was good)

(Eccles pastry)

First off, my impressions so far is the Maori love carving and they are really good at it. 

(Cecil in a tradition Maori hut that we have lost the name of)

(Note the use of shells for eyes)

Also, eveything paralleles the American Indian story in America. Just change Maori with Indian and Americans with British. They also had some brutal tribal warefre items. They also has a section about local wildlife. The moa bird is terrifying, that's what. I have to say about that. Also they have one of the largest ocean fossil collections.

Finally, they had a warm memorial half devoted to WWI and WWII as well as the struggles between the natives and Britain. It's was well done and depressing. One quote in the holocaust area resonated with me:

Anyway, after the museum, we went to the sky tower. Beautiful views even on a rainy day. Mostly city views, but it is the highest building in NZ, so that's to be expected. These are all iPhone photos, the nice camera ones are better.

(Notice the island/volcano in the backgrounds)

We then picked up some tea and hot chocolate at a cafe and subway to eat for dinner later. Yes, subway. You may be asking why. Two reasons: 1. It's something we could pick up and eat later 2. because our hotel is expensive and has no restaurants around it. 

Tonight is pretty much chilling before whale watching tomorrow! Crossing or fingers that weather doesn't cancel it. It's supposed to be rainy and cold he whole time in Auckland but I pulled my winter coat out and am making the best of it.

Auckland day 1

Just mainly pictures for your enjoyment

Tiny trash cans! 

What's missing from this picture? 

How about refrigeration for the eggs? 

Wonder how much money grocery stores in the US would save?!

Great name for fire staters! 

Not diapers but Nappies!!

Really? 

I haven't eaten at one of these in the states! 

Are you depressed? 

No I'm emu 

Auckland zoo

On the right is the Kea 

It is a highland parrot that literally walks around a huge enclosure and just does what it wants. Karen almost got hit in the head twice... By a different parrot

Come here kea...

Go away huuuman 

 So the Auckland zoo had a great set of exhibits from the wetlands, the sea and the forest and how each of the animals in the different regions are endangered.

Little blue penguins. They got mad at each other and we're making a ruckus when we were there

Capybara!! 

They also had some exhibits. Which would never pass in the US. For example this in the tank. Which is a sign by that says the eels bite but you don't put your hands in there. No glass tank or anything kind of standing there like hey why don't you put your hand in here!

They also have these giant indoor enclosed exhibits. See, like the covered area in this picture? You just walked through and there were signs saying don't touch the animals. It was really cool. They were from each of the different regions in New Zealand. The zoo itself is pretty small but really well done

The plane ride (second half)

So we actually board the plane to Auckland and it is a behemoth! 

It is a 787 and decked out 

We did get a skycouch... Which meant that we paid for an extra seat so that the footrests could pop up and that we could recline. Best money I have spent ever! Kinda deliberated over it but because it was a 13 hour flight and it was overnight we decided to do it. 

So our skycouch worked beautifully and each seat had its own tv/movie/games options. 

I was surprised that I stayed up and actually watched movies most of the night while Karen slept sprawled out on the skycouch. 

Easiest 13 hour flight I have taken. 

even though the last one I took was back in 2003 to India and they just didn't have the technology for every seat to have its own entertainment system. 

Then we landed in Auckland and in a matter of 20 minutes we had cleared customs, gotten our bags and were waiting for the hotel shuttle to come and pick us up. 

I believe a lot of the headache was relieved by the gate staff for air New Zealand at Los Angeles. 

Tv/ music/ games options 

Remote control for my screen

The plane ride (first half)

So the first connection from Columbus to Houston got in late it was a pretty turbulent flight and there was a huge wave of storms right in our path, along with the fact that we were in a tiny regional jet. 

So we get off the first plane and literally run to the second fate which is in a whole different terminal and make it. 

Second place from Houston to lax is a lot  bigger, still some storms but not nearly as turbulent and the first jet. 

Then we get to lax on time around 4 pm Los Angeles time... And the fun begins. 

Lax is one of the crappiest airports I have been to!!! 

It is a huge airport and there are multiple terminals just because of the sheer amount of flights that it needs to accommodate but oh man! It is confusing to get around and there is little to no signs. 

Case in point is the fact that we got off the plane in terminal 8 (see picture 1) 

And the flight to Auckland shows up in the departure board of the United terminal in terminal 8 with the time and the letters "TBIT" 

So Karen and I look at each other and think "huh! Must be leaving from this terminal?! Kinda weird but we don't know what TBIT means, maybe "to be determined" or "to be informed tonight" (because we did get there 4 hours before the flight) 

So we go grab dinner, we walked from terminal 8 20 minutes down to terminal 5 to get to a Starbucks and go to a Iron chef restauraunt. 

So while down at terminal 5 we ask some airport gate  employees, "hey we saw this departure to Auckland on the United board, but not on the delta or american airways board? Oh and by the way it is an international flight, so do we need to go to the international terminal?" 

Airport employee: "if it shows up on the United board it should be flying out of that terminal, you guys are still early, I would bet it just needs to be assigned the closer it is to the the flight time, besides to go to the international terminal  you will have to walk outside of security and go through security again. 

Ok, wow, going through security again doesn't seem to make sense, let's walk back to terminal 8. 

So we walk back 20 minutes to terminal 8 and look again and it still says TBIT. At this point we are 2 1/2 hours ahead and we decide to ask one of the United agents and they tell us "TBIT" stands for Tom Bradley International terminal" and yes you do have to walk back down to terminal 5 and go through security again" 

Ok so we walk down to terminal 5 again, and keep on walking and walking and walking. We had to constantly ask for direction because there were simply no signs for the international terminal. 

Literally as we were heading out terminal 5 we saw this sign (picture 2)... And that was the only sign! 

Not so bad for us, because we could read and speak English, but seeing as how it is an international terminal I feel bad for the scores of lost non english speakers who couldn't find it.

So we walk out and do have to go through security again and get to the air New Zealand gate! Whoo hoo! We can relax and kick back! 

Not so fast!!! 

We are informed that we can only have 15 pounds in our carry on luggage! 

Our carry ons easily weigh 35 pounds each. 

So we have to check our one carry on with the camera in it and have to buy a canvas tote bag and split up the remainder of the backpack which probably looked hilarious because we were "those people" with the contents of our life strewn over the terminal floor. 

The gate agent was 6 kinds of awesome and did help us a lot, especially with Karen Australian visa. 

So all of that behind us we finally got on the plane so to summarize 

Lax: confusing and poor signage

Air New Zealand and staff: awesome! 

Karen's two cents:

What did we learn?

1. Make sure your carry on weighs less than 15 lbs

2. Lax is terrible and be sure you know where your going or your going to have a rough time

3.  Air bee Zealand was great to fly on

Picture 1

Picture 2

Travel day!

So we are at the airport and here is our travel plans for the day

Columbus to Houston 

Houston to Los Angeles 

Los Angeles to Auckland 

19 hours and 6894 miles

We leave Los Angeles at 9pm tonight and get to Auckland at 7am on Thursday

Really exciting but really looking forward to the day where we can just step on a platform and be transported places! 

Insurance hates us … our last days here

This post is going to be short and sweet. There's too much real life stuff to do. Basically, the first issue that we've been dealing with is that we need International health insurance. It's just basically covers you because you're not technically a member of the country and using their healthcare system. You're still just a visitor. Well, because of my medical history and let's face it Cecil has his own issues there..... We have been rejected by several different companies. Rather quickly too. They basically look at the summary health of questions and were like oh hell no! Anyway were waiting to hear back from another one so maybe eventually will get insurance? Who knows. This is been really frustrating. I know our health looks bad on paper. But I still feel like I'm pretty healthy person, ya know? We both eat relatively healthy and exercise. And we both have our health issues completely under control. Frustrating.

Anyway, things are in the very last stretch. The house is even more depressing than last week. Which quite frankly I didn't know was possible. We've taken some things to my parents house to store. Mostly some paperwork and other things that we can't afford to have ruined. Remember we went and booked in indoor storage locker but it's not climate controlled so there is a chance that the things we store could freeze or basically not make it. For those of you that know me yes, I sent my board games to my parents house. They're that important LOL. Other than that we are packed and suitcases ready and ready to go. Ok well mostly packed.  It's scary and I'm not looking forward to the flight but my compression socks are out and we will be good to go. I have good intentions of posting when we get there next week but if I don't please forgive me in advance. You know how life can get in the way of things like blogging.