New Zealand!

First stop, Auckland. A big city on the ocean. I stayed on Queen Street a few blocks from the wharfs. It's known as a big shopping street, which is *exactly* what I was looking for...;)

After a couple of days traveling and  huge time zone shifts, it was extremely easy to catch a bus into downtown, way, way cheaper than a taxi, which is quite expensive. Taxis want around 80 New Zealand dollars, vs 12 for the bus. That isn't exactly as expensive as it sounds since the US dollar is so strong. The NZ dollar is worth about 67 cents. Just last year it was 1 for 1, so I'm feeling wealthy...

While I was getting off the bus I dropped my glasses case with my glasses and didn't notice until I got to the front desk. My glasses are way expensive so I was on a mission to get them back. Someone turned them in and through an improbable set of circumstances I got them back a few hours later without having to go far. Cool, nice intro to NZ.

I went on a harbor cruise and the most interesting site was where the original Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was attacked. It was docked at the wharf shown below when the French intelligence service planted a bomb on the hull and sunk it for whatever weird reason. This was in 1985 and they killed one person in the operation. I'm not sure if anyone figured out the insane motivation for this, but I remember it happening and there it was.

Spent a few days here to get acculturated and oriented before getting my rental car and spending the next month driving over a thousand miles on the LEFT SIDE of the road!

Downtown Auckland from just off Queen's Wharf

Yellow dock in center background is where the French intelligence service sank the Rainbow Warrior in 1985