April 8th 2007, Arrival in New Zealand

The previous day was 4 hours long. After leaving Hawaii at midnight, I crossed the date line 7 hours into the flight, time traveling a day ahead. I begin this trek with 6,000 dollars for 3 months.

On the flight, they served wine and tea the entire flight through and I did not take them up on the offer because I felt I was getting sick. This is not a good thing when flying to a foreign country as they usually don't take to kindly to traveling plague victims.

Stranger than Fiction was one of the in flight movies at 4 AM and I had to stay up for it because it was one of my favorite movies. After watching it, I had a feeling that everything was going to be ok.

I finally slept a little on the 9 hour flight (no one sat next to me either) but luckily I woke up before sunrise. Flying at 34,000 feet (11000 meters) when the sun rises is one of the most beautiful images that I can see ever. Here is a photo of the sun rise at 11000 m and right when we get into auckland:


I booked my lodging for the night...whew! on easter sunday no less, massive holiday for the Christians.

Getting off the plane At Queenstown was like stepping into a new world fill of sunshine and awesomeness! The first thing I did after checking into the Deco backpackers hostel was go to Church on this the day of our Lord's birth. They only had one mass at 9 AM so I picked up a free post card to send to the folks and tell them yes I went to Church. I picked up a backcountry hut pass 90 bucks where i would definitely be saving money on hiking huts and some maps for the area to plan my day tomorrow. I passed out very early due to no sleep on the plane, and I think the German girls in my room might have been laughing at me. Ah well.

Panorama from the back balcony of the Deco Backpackers in Queenstown with the Remarkables overexposed in the backgound:
These small pics don't do it justice, and larger versions are on my webalbums on Picasa

End Day One of NZ in NZ!