May 12 didn't happen... so, Sunday, May 13

Somewhere on that New Zealand Air flight... Saturday disappeared.  But before I move on, I would like to share with you this AMAZING flight video that they played for us:

... I'm pretty sure I remember seeing THIS one as well. 

I knew that I was going to LOVE New Zealand after these gems.

As soon as we got off the flight… I wanted to get some money.

One: New Zealand money is way prettier than American money.

Two: my card wouldn’t let me take out money. AWESOME. Not.

Our first stop was Mt. Eden.
First thought: Is this real life?

According to the RELIABLE resource Wikipedia:

"Mount Eden (Maungawhau, the 'Mountain of the Whau tree' in Māori) is the name of a cinder cone and surrounding suburb in Auckland City, New Zealand, situated five kilometres south of the city centre. The mountain is the highest natural point in the whole of Auckland. The English name honours George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland."

It was like a mountain/crater (oxymoron?)  that had an AMAZING view of Auckland. Did I mention that everything was green? Well… it was. It was basically indescribable. Hence my loss for words.

See (you can click to get a bigger picture):

After mount Eden we went to: Mission Bay.

The other side of the Pacific Ocean (kinda).... I saw "both" sides of the Pacific Ocean within 24 hours (obviously more than 2 sides... but you get what I'm saying). Talk about being lucky. I can’t even begin to explain how many times I thought about how fortunate I am to be having this opportunity. To be here. In a different country…. Across the world.

The view was beautiful.

We walked through the town and I was able to FINALLY find an ATM that allowed me to take out money. WOOT BNZ bank. Thank you for being available nationally.

A group of us walked around the town until we were able to find the least expensive place to eat. It ended up being a sandwich shop. I got a guacamole, spinach, and cheese sandwich. Never had something like that before but it was delicious. While eating we saw an adorable dog who had a hard time walking. Depressing and adorable. It was nice to see something familiar like an animal (which warms my heart) in an unfamiliar area.

 

 

Then… we went to the store and got food for a “communal dinner”. Spaghetti it was. Lets just say that we burnt the spaghetti noodles. Didn’t know that was possible. But it is. Be warned by friend, be warned. After dinner. I crashed. As in… bed. ABSOLUTELY. Thank you. It needed to happen.