Auckland — 1 February 2001

After a long journey, we arrived in New Zealand on a bright clear morning. Tired but excited, we checked into our room at the Kiwi International. We were pleased to find our room overlooked Myers Park.

We freshened up and then walked to the Tranz Rail station to purchase our train pass and make reservations for transit to Wellington and Christchurch. The ticket agent was very friendly and asked if we were American or Canadian. Deprived of sleep, Carl inadvertently emigrated to Canada.

For lunch we stopped at Cafe Melba. We were bowled over by our first taste of NZ food. I'm not sure what we had expected, perhaps the stereotypical overcooked British fare, but what we got was very fresh and what I'd call fusion cooking.

A little tired, we headed back up the hill to the Kiwi for some rest and a bit of planning.

For dinner we didn't stray far from the Kiwi and headed across the street to the Baan Thia Restaurant. The food was good but we had a hard time keeping our eyes open long enough to finish dinner.

The city reminded us both of San Francisco, but very clean.