Traveling

Air New Zealand

View of Grand Canyon from Plane

At 12:30 pm on Monday (June 21), Mum, Dad, Lindsey, and I left our house to begin our journey. We flew five hours to LAX (we saw the Grand Canyon from the plane!!! And we flew over the International Date Line where time jumped forward 24 hours!) and got a connection on a huge double decker air New Zealand plane to Auckland where we arrived at 6 am on Wednesday.  Unfortunately one of my bags was left at LAX so we had to return to the airport the next morning. The first thing Lindsey and I got excited about as we stepped into New Zealand for the first time were the super big Toblerone bars! Yum!! The Kea camper van company came to pick us up at the airport at 7:30 am after we drank some free tea. We were the first ever customers at their new facilities. After an hour of signing paperwork and learning how to work the van we headed off on our epic journey through the country. The first thing we did, of course, was stock up on food and then we visited Gillian and her baby Erin. Gillian is mum’s cousin’s daughter and this was the first time meeting her! We then met up with dad’s work colleague, Caroline Gray, and she brought us to One Tree Hill. At the top we could see all of Auckland! After, we went out to dinner with her and her husband at Fox’s Ale House. It is true that the best wine comes from New Zealand! It was a great atmosphere to watch the All-Blacks play Wales. The Haka is so intense! Exhaustion set in as we returned to the camper van and conked out at 10:30 pm.

View of Aukland from One Tree Hill