"Oh, We'll Just Figure It Out When We Get There"

After a few months of anticipation, we finally left for New Zealand on July 5th. Saying goodbye to our weepy parents at the Edmonton Airport at 11am, we were on our way.

First leg: Edmonton to Seattle.

              Seattle Airport was really nice, great view of the mountains.

Second Leg: Seattle to Los Angeles
                    LAX is a horrible place where we had the pleasure of spending our 4 and a half hour layover. Didn't deserve any pictures because we do not want to remember that place.

Third Leg: Los Anglese to Nadi, Fiji
                 While checking in at Air Pacific counter in LA, the short Fijian man sympathetically looked up at us and asked us if we wanted to switch to the emergency exit seats cuz we are so tall.

                 That man is our hero!

The flight was 10 hours long and our tv's in our row were broken, but luckily we were tired enough from our earlier flights that we were able to sleep pretty well on and off. The seats were narrow but we were very grateful for the ability to stretch out. We rolled into Fiji early in the morning while it was still dark.

            At the airport in Fiji

Leg Four: Nadi, Fiji to Auckland
                After watching the sunrise in the Fiji airport, we boarded the plane and were headed to New Zealand. It was a 3 and a half hour flight over open blue ocean on a clear day all the way until Auckland...

Auckland Airport:
                So someone asked us before we left "what are you going to do once you get off the plane in Auckland?" At the time we just said "oh we'll just figure it out when we get there." After 30 hours of travel with little sleep and airport/airplane food to eat, we came to the realization that our initial plan to go out and get everything lined up in half a day was a little bit unrealistic. So, instead, we spent extra time in the Auckland airport getting a cell phone lined up and renting a car. We put the campervan shopping on hold and decided to drive straight to Hamilton.

Leg Five: Auckland to Hamilton
              We rented a little yellow Hyundai car we named Lenny (sorry, forgot to take a picture), and took to the roads. We pulled away from the car rental place and first thing we encounter is a roundabout (traffic circle). YIKES!

   
It was scary and there may have been some screaming involved... but we made it to Hamilton without incident. That is where we learned the hard way that a person turning right has the right of way to the person turning left. (draw it out if you have to... but don't forget you drive on the other side of the road here) Anyways... just about got hit, but stopped just in time.

So our total travel time from Edmonton to Hamilton was 39 hours! We were exhausted so we checked into a hostel, had a shower and crashed.

          Scott eating New Zealand's famous meat pies. Very dangerous for his figure.