That's all Folks

The trip has come to an end.  I'm headed to the airport as soon as I post this entry.  We lived it up, partied hard and had a great time.  What an awesome trip.  Now I have to go back to Boston where it's cold and snowing.  I was getting used to wearing just board shorts and sandals.  Oh well...

We got to Auckland pretty early yesterday, checked into the hostel and then went to return Norton.  First we gave him a ghetto bath using the window cleaner from a gas station.  Then we dropped him off.  We took a cab back into the city cuz the Wicked place was in the middle of nowhere.  Then we got some beer and some Wendy's for dinner....always the start of a good night.  We hit up the casino, blew a bit of money for an hour, got our pictures taken with some showgirls and then looked for a bar to go to.  Little did we know, Auckland kinda sucks.  A local in line at one bar told us that all the young people leave the city and go to music festivals for New Years Eve. Now they tell us!  We walked around forever, watched the midnight fireworks shot from the top of the skytower and then finally found a decent bar near the harbor.  There was some dancing, some music, an 80 year old man hitting on 20 year old girls...not a bad night in all, though nothing too exciting.  On the way home we stopped at burger king and got yelled at for taking video while we were in there.  Apparently there's some secret stuff going on in the kitchen that they don't want on film.

Check out of the hostel this morning, got breakfast and figured out how much money we owed each other.  Then Streaks left for the airport to head back to Queenstown, after not being able to get into our locker that had our backpacks for half an hour!  I walked around the harbor for a while, read by the water and took a harbor cruise just to occupy my time and keep me awake.  Now I'm headed back to the hostel to get my bags, which are stuck in a locker that I don't have the combo to...

Hopefully, the flights home will be less eventful than the flights here.  I'll be in LA for a long time if anyone wants to call and entertain me tomorrow (2-10 LA time).

Peace out NZ

Right Country, Wrong City

So I've had quite the last 24 hours.  Got on my southwest flights no problem, made it to LAX right on schedule.  I get in line for the check-in for Air New Zealand and they tell us that the plane experienced incredible amounts of turbulence on the way to LA and needs to undergo maintenance so the flight is delay 12 hours.  They put us all up at the LAX Hilton and give us a free dinner buffet, which wasn't very good.  After a $7 beer at the bar I was exhausted, took a shower and went to bed.  The next morning I got to the airport to check my bag and there were no workers there.  Apparently they don't get there until 5:30 even though my flight is supposed to leave at 7.  Anyway, I got the guy to switch my seat to an aisle, which turned out to be an exit row!  WIN!

After security and unknowingly paying for starbucks breakfast when my boarding pass would have gotten it for free, the plane was an hour late taking off.  The aisle seat however was amazing!  Free to stretch my legs for the full 12 hours.

The flight was uneventful, though the flight attendant keep filling up my wine glass during dinner.  THe last hour went really fast!  Customs had to inspected the tent that I brought, which meant taking it apart and making a mess out of the nicely folded and packed bag, which took me forever repack.  They put me up in a Holiday Inn for tonight and gave us a free buffet dinner.  It even had oysters on the half shell!  I went downtown with so guys that were on my plane, they spent $260 on dinner, I was content with my buffet dinner, 2 beers and some bread.  I'm off to Queenstown, to meet up with Streaks, who I haven't been able to contact so Dan if you are reading this, I'll try to call you in the morning!  haha

Time for bed...

Weather is beautiful.  I love summer!