Update...from Auckland this time!

Hi all, as some of you know, I'm finally in Auckland, and everything hasn't exactly being going as smoothly as I thought it would of. Let me start from the beginning.

Auckland International Airport
I land 30 minutes ealier than expected due to tail winds, which was pretty sweet, give me 30 more minutes to enjoy NZ. But as usual, every country has borders that need to be crossed, so that was the first obstacle. No sweat, I've done it all before. I get to where the ques start, and I almost faint. Usually there's only 1 plane worth of people standing in line. This was about 3 fully packed, jumbo jets worth of people. And I was in the back. Yay. So after about 20 minutes of standing in line, walking past the same people God knows how many times, it was like deja vu to the extreme (esp. when you're tired and horribly jet lagged). And the moment of truth, I get to talk to the Customs Officer. As I said before, I've done all this before, so I'm just polite, and straight forward with answering his questions, and when I mentioned that I was going to be here with a Working Holiday Visa, he starts looking around, asking his collegues what protocols to bipass and follow in order to let me in. He finally calls after another officer to come and pick me up from his station, something that got my heart racing straight away (I know I have nothing to hide, but I was still worried). After having walked about 5 m, the officer tells me to go and pick up my luggage, and meet him in one of the corners. Follow his instructions by going to the conveyer belt where my bag should arrive, and I wait for about 10-15min. No bag. I crap my pants. I then inform the officer about my problem, and just tell me to wait.

After a couple of minutes waiting for the customs to clear my papers, I start trudging towards the baggage service station, where I make a report and ask them to search for my bag, to see if they could find it somewhere. The system turns out blank, no results. I begin to weep inside, seriously. So, I do what every sensible person does, sucks it up and keeps on moving. I then clear all the other security check points and start looking for my ride. I can't find her. I thought that maybe she had waited a really long time and just left. I start thinking about Plan B, which is getting into Auckland and finding my hostesses. Instead I turn around and scan the room, looking for my ride. After 1 minutes searching I find her and we start our socialising process. It all went really smoothly! She was really cool! Really helpful and starts rambling on all these facts about NZ which really caught me off guard. Like what exactly? Well, in her opinion, she sees NZ being about 20years behind England in certain areas (mainly IT) which is something that I have to agree with. Maybe 10 years behind at least. Anyway, we have lunch, and she's a dear and hooked me up with a SIM card for my phone (which was loaded with cash too). Great gal through and through!

After all that was sorted, she took me to where I was going to crash for the remainder of me time in Auckland before I head up north. And when we pulled into the drive way, I check out to make sure that someone is in to recieve me, and when Tamz opens the door, the first things, quite literally, asks if I want a glass of wine. First reaction: cool chick! I say good-bye to Trudy, my ride (don't know if I mentioned her name before) and then go inside to mingle with one of my two hostesses. Without a lot of hesitation, I take a glass of wine with her, which is quite a big mistake. Why? Because I almost collapsed on her keyboard to her computer. End result: me being woken up by the my other hostess and then being put to bed with some nice home made garlic bread.

The next couple of days were pretty much one way. Getting a car. But along the way I walked past an attraction that Jimmay's boss recommended to me, indirectly. What am I referring to? The White House. Apparently one of the best strip clubs on the southern hemisphere (don't worry dad, I haven't verified it...yet :P)

After a bunch of thinking and consulting, I decided to buy a white '92 Toyota Corolla. It's pretty decent, it didn't have a lot of problems with it, but it's going to take me from point A to point B...and hopefully C, D, and E. But we'll see about that in a while. Sadly I had to buy new tires for the car, however it has it's perks. I won't have to worry about them poppping in the middle of no where and also I didn't get a locking nut for the rims, so they got rid of them and fixed the wheels for a pretty decent price.

To add some more good news to this, i) It was sunny today, and ii) I found Dunkin' Doughnuts today. My day was completed. AND, drum roll please - my luggage has been found! Schweet! So I should be getting it in about two days, so I'm pretty stoked now. The pieces are falling into place. However, pieces can look like they're in place, yet they're a bit off center.

Also, the passenger buckle doesn't really work, so another couch surfer that's here has sacrificed one of his caribeaners for it, so now it's a seriously hardcore improvisation for keeping the passenger from flying out the front window. I have faith in it. Photo's of it will come up.

Aight guys, I'm pretty tired now, but here are some photos for you guys to enjoy. Cheers!