New Zealand is NEW!

Yesterday I arrived in Auckland, where I went through a nice screening of whether or not I was a terrorist or something.  There were some complications with my length of stay, but thanks goes out to Jose in San Francisco for helping me figure everything else.  After having my hiking shoes severely cleaned and checked for any biohazards (and having my bags sniffed by an adorable beagle), I was in!  I met up with my parents in the airport (the took another flight and arrived about 45 minutes before me), then sat around for our shuttle to our rental car.  Just letting everyone know, McDonald's is just as bad in New Zealand as it is in the US.  At the rental car place we hung out for about an hour while dad asked a million questions and mom was trying to get a phone to work, we were finally off on our own!  This is how it went: Dad almost killed us before we even made it out the parking lot because he didn't look to the right before he tried to pull out.  The first hour in the car was horrible, Dad basically came within an inch of everything on the left side of the car.  That was fun.  So mom took over driving and I passed out for two hours while we drove to Paiha (I think that's how it's spelled), which is in the Bay of Islands.  It's beautiful up here and the place we stayed in is pretty awesome.  Today we might go kayaking and then drive north towards the tip of the north island, then go to 90 Mile Beach.  Hope all is well back in the US.  I'll have pictures soon!

P.S.- Oh and everything takes about two extra hours to get to because we suck at driving on the left side.  Stupid Brits and their colonization.