Day 1

First Day in Auckland.

The Jetstar flight over was smooth and thankfully uneventful.  2 douchbags delayed the plane by around 15mins.  I don't understand how you can be late for your flight? - don't you book it in advance and know exactly what time you should be at the airport.  The instructions clearly say be there at least 90 mins prior to your flight and be waiting to board at least 30 mins.

Luckily for these idiots, the weather was soooo good that we still made it to Auckland on time.

Touchdown was great - the airport felt almost deserted.  Such a difference to the Gold Coast airport where it was difficult just to get around the hordes of passangers waiting to board their various flights.  Auckland was relaxed and it was amazingly quick getting through customs.  :-(  We didn't get a stamp in our passports - so upset!  The lady at the customs counter ushered us through to the BioHazard counter because the other area was much busier.  The young guy at the counter checked out passports, handed them back and just told us to exit.  Didn't even open our bags.  Good for us, I guess - it was a quick and painless.

Once out of customs it was easy to approach the first information booth and book on to a shuttle bus directly to the hotel.  $41 later and we're on the bus and winding our way through outer Auckland.  Unfortunately, Andy and I couldn't sit together because the bus was already fully booked; however I did get to sit up the front and get a birdseye view of the scenery.  At Mission Beach the bus off-loaded its first passangers and I made my way to the back of the bus to sit with Andy.

Around another 20 mins later and we're the ones getting dropped off at our Hotel - the Pullman Auckland.  Not an impressive building from the outside a skinny, dark brown building looking almost like an Eastern European tenement block.  However, once we disembarked from the bus, the usher raced over to get our luggage and show us into the Hotel Lobby.  The Hotel was very busy because they were hosting the Netball Champion players as well, some conferences and a wedding reception was also in progress when we arrived.  Once we were served the receptionist, I'm not sure what hotel receptionists are called property, was very professional and friendly; however I did feel a bit out of my depth, because the place is very swanky.

Once in our room - I no longer felt out of depth.  The room was your standard small twin bed set up.  Equipped with all the necessaries, including a bathtub!  The hotel even provides 24 hours of free Wi-Fi, which I'm hoping we don't go over.  I'll try and post here everyday, but unfortunately it will depend on internet access.  Also, when we get back home I'll update each post with photos.  I'll have lots of photos.  It was very disappointing looking out the window of our 3rd floor room - the view is horrible.  It overlooks the roof of the lower level conference rooms and obviously at some point hotel guests had thrown rubbish onto the roof and it's littered with it.  We've shut the curtains for now - it makes the room more palatable.  I've consoled myself with the knowledge that we don't intend to spend a lot of time in the room, which we haven't so far.  As soon as we booked in, set up we ventured out and explored.

We decided to get some suppplies and found a shopping complex close by.  The sign out the front said open til 8pm 7 days per week.  Unfortunately, they forgot to tell the shops and the staff, because promptly at 6pm we were told that the shops were closing and we had to leave!  What the?

Picture to follow as soon as I have proper internet connection.

Good night!

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