Made it to Auckland!

Hellooo 4:45am alarm!  After getting the bags in the car my mom and I left for the ATL airport.  I checked in and eventually left her, after many tears, and kept on going through security.  The security line is where my true travel experience really shined.  I forgot to take my belt off, didn’t take my laptop out of its case, was short one box, AND had tears streaming down my face from saying goodbye.  Luckily the businessman behind me was a nice one and didn’t seem to be in a hurry because he calmly grabbed another bin for me and waited patiently.  Thank you kind businessman!  As I sat at the gate to board the plane to DC, I tried to read a book but unfortunately I couldn’t see the pages because of the tears that kept welling up in my eyes.  When I got to DC, I couldn’t have even told you what city I was in.  It could’ve been Chicago for all I know.  It’s weird how an airport says nothing about a city (except for the souvenirs) and how they all look the same when looking out the windows.  I ate some Wendy’s and people watched until the flight to LA took off.  I had a window seat and got to see the crop circles in Kansas (I assume it was Kansas) and desert that looked like Egypt to me in New Mexico or Arizona…?  I hopped off the plane at LAX aka the most CONFUSING airport ever.  I asked three different people for directions to my assigned gate, mainly because I didn’t believe the first two when they told me to go outside and across the parking garage and cross two streets. What the heck?! Sure enough I had to go outside, across the parking garage, and cross two streets, which also meant that I had to go through security again.  Good thing I wasn’t in a hurry, sheesh! 45 minutes later I found it. 

The almost 13 hour flight to Auckland was LONG, but it definitely helped that 24 was an option on the touchscreen TV that was mounted on the seat in front of me.  Jack Bauer and I got some good bonding time.  I took some Dramamine and fell asleep but then was woken up to the question of chicken or vegetarian for dinner at 12:35 am! I subconsciously chose chicken, ate one bite and my roll, and then went back to sleep.  Woke up at about 4:30 am to the best fruit plate ever, complete with yogurt and a muffin.  Air New Zealand, I love you!

Today has been really long and it feels like 7pm already.  We spent the morning at an orientation session, got cell phones, and now it’s free time.  A friend from Furman and I are in a fancy shmancy McDonalds right now in downtown Auckland, which feels very similar to New York City but with lots of Asians, surprisingly (and I even talked to one with an accent that was a mix of asian and NZ, very interesting).  I’ll post some pictures of Auckland and my amazing plane fruit plate a little later!

We head out to Rotorua tomorrow until Monday for more orientation stuff and some white water rafting!