In New Zealand!

Yup, I've arrived safely in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm going to try to finish up the rest of my days in Japan before I start blogging about NZ to keep the timeline less confusing, but no guarantees. I actually feel quite lost, I have no real clue what to see or do yet, and I'm staying at a quiet, little B&B style hostel where the manager is usually not on-site and there's no real front desk here, so it's more having to sort through a ton of brochures and reading my guidebook for ideas. I'll probably just take it easy though for the first day or 2.

I wanted to travel with as little electronics as possible, but now it seems like I'm carrying everything: I have a netbook now so I can easily blog, a compact camera in addition to my DSLR, and I bought a cell phone literally a few hours before leaving for NZ because a prepaid SIM card here is not too expensive and a lot of backpackers get it to keep in touch with people they meet. I bought the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic...I have to say I'm liking it so far. The phone supposedly has the ability to make free VoIP calls (like Skype), but I haven't figured out how to activate it yet.

And flying here (10 hours from HK) on Cathay Pacific was a dream after flying with Continental...back to the friendly service, delicious meals, the included extras (like a toothbrush and toothpaste for the long flight, which Continental didn't provide!), the nicer quality extras (the pillows have actual pillow cases, not that thin mesh cover that Continental uses), the included alcoholic drinks (unlike having to pay extra on North American airlines), and early arrivals!

Well, I'm off to find a place to eat dinner! I haven't eaten anything but a small bag of chips since I got off the plane. Which reminds me, things in NZ are expensive! I paid about $2 CDN for a 1.5L bottle of water and just over $1 CDN for a bag of chips the size of the ones you give out at Halloween or put in a loop bag...that's even more expensive that Japan!