Auckland, New Zealand

It is 6:30 p.m. NZ time on Thursday, March 29. It is 11:30 p.m. AZ time on Wednesday, March 28. I don't know where the day wen't but we'll get it back on our return. The flight to LA was uneventful. We were lucky enough to have Uncle Ed pick us up at LAX and take us out to eat instead of waiting 4 hours at the airport for our next flight. We got back to the airport and waited, waited and waited some more. We left LA an hour late and were happy to be on our way. We lucked out and each of us got our own row so we could lay down (sort of). They gave us blankets, pillows, and noise cancelling headphones (to use, not keep). They had TVs at each seat which played movies, TV shows, kid's shows, played music, let you create your own play lists and even had video games. Ricky was in heaven! I fell asleep an hour into the flight and slept on and off the entire time. Ricky watched three movies and I believe Mom saw one or two. I did watch one video on New Zealand. The food was good, the wine was better (one glass put me to sleep). When we arrived in Auckland the pilot let Ricky go up to the upper deck and sit in the cockpit. He also got to lay down in the premier business class and see what the seat/flat beds feel like. Man were they nice! We arrived just shy of 7 am NZ time and made it through customs without incident. Traffic is horrendous here. It took an hour to get to the hotel but we got to talk to a couple of local residents who told us a lot of neat things about Auckland. While we waited for a room we walked around the city center and had a late breakfast in a neat little cafe. We also went to the Sky Tower but did not go up because the visibility was near zero at the top. We see the tower right outside our room. Once in our room we decided to lay down for an hour and then head down to the waterfront. Fifteen minutes into our rest the fire alarm went off, it was a false alarm. After an hour or so we headed out in the pouring rain to the harbour. What we could see was beautiful. Too far to walk to the aquarium so we decided to go on the ferry across the harbour to Devonport. It is a nice little town with tourist shops and places to explore (if it wasn't raining so hard). We walked the shops and then as we got back to the ferry the sun peaked through the clouds. It was a beautiful sight! It only lasted long enough to take a few pictures, but it enabled us to get a look at the Auckland skyline from across the harbour.
Completely soaked we headed back to the hotel, changed, and Ricky and I headed back out to give Grammy some peace and quiet. We found this Internet cafe and are taking a break to play a little. As soon as our hour is up we are going to get some dinner and head back to the hotel. Ricky has a lot of literature and has already filled a journal page. We are having a great time but really need some sleep. I guess we'll do that when we get home! More to come...