We arrived!

Well, we finally made it. After 7 years of planning, Michael and I are on New Zealand soil! But before I tell you about our first day, perhaps you should know about our adventure getting here! My flight to LA was delayed 2 hours and when I arrived at LAX, I couldn't find Gord and Michael! If any of you've been to the LA airport, you know how big it is and how almost impossible a task it would be to find someone there without cell phones! Well, miracles do happan and after trapsing across 4 or 5 terminals, I saw Michael in terminal 2! Then Gord and Carol! I was SOOOOO happy.

We were able to hang out for a while before Michael and I had to say goodbye and work our way through the security station. This would just be a simple sentence moving our story forward but wait! Put on the brakes... Michael got strip searched! Okay, bit of an exaggeration, but it got your attention, right? All was going well, our bags were scanned as well as our shoes (did you know they make you take off your shoes now and put them with your carry on items through the security scanner?) Michael was ahead of me and when I turned around to go through the scanner myself, I saw Michael quarentined in a little holding area. I was told they wanted to inspect the tension bandage around his wrist (injurred his wrist slightly last week playing soccer). A big (and I mean BIG) security guard came over and took him to the side. He ran a small square of cloth all over the bandage and stuck in in a machine. I guess they were 'sniffing' for explosives or drugs. All this while Michael had to stand in his bare feet!

Well, we got through that little adventure only to wait for our plane which was delayed. The flight was long but uneventful. Qantas is a great airline to fly with! They treat their passengers well. We arrived in Aukland without any difficulty and found our shuttle to our hotel. After checking in at 7:00 AM Sunday, we cleaned up and headed out to the Antarctic adventure and Aquarium. In short, there were lots of turtles and penguins. Oh, and I must not forget the sting rays and sharks. We particularly liked the moving walkway through the aquarium tanks with the sharks, fish and stingrays swimming all around us!

Our second stop was MOTAT (Museum of Transportatin and Technology). Lots of planes, trains and automobiles. Oh yeah, trams, bicycles, telephones, camers and fire engines too! Michael got to fly a Vampire jet (okay, it was only a flight simulator!)!

After returning back to our hotel (we were very tired - Michael didn't sleep much on the plane), we rested before going out for a bite to eat. As I type, Michael has CRASHED into bed. I hope to be there soon too.