Auckland, New Zealand

I love it here. It is BEAUTIFUL, clean, friendly, one of the nicest places I have ever been. Its the size of California, the same latitude precisely, similar climate, and only 4M people!! So much natural beauty and natural diversity. Too bad real estate prices have already gone nuts here. The wine producing region has shot up 800% in the last 5 years. And everything else isn't cheap anymore either. When Amie was here last a few years ago it was $2.50 NZ dollars to $1US. Now it is only $1.36NZ to $1US. OUCH!!!

We got off the red eye flight from Santiago via Buenos Aires at 6am local time, about 17 hours of travel. Amie slept the whole way. Lucky duck. We picked up our rental car and drove directly to pick up our backpacks Amie's mom had sent to a friend staying near Piha on the west coast, about an hours drive from the airport. Incredible naturaly beauty. As soon as you are outside of Auckland about 10 minutes it feels like a remote corner of Maui. Its insane!!! We picked up our care package and chatted about US politics and the current immigration of Californians to NZ. The real estate locusts have already driven the prices way up over the last few years and with the weak dollar, it isn't that cheap here anymore. Plus, the earning potential is a fraction of what it is back home... so moving here, however attractive, isn't that practical.

This is the first time I have ever travelled anywhere without any idea of what I want/need to see. We have been so focused on South America, NZ has gotten no attention, until now. I just bought the lonely planet and will be reading it more or less from cover to cover tomorrow putting together an outline for our next 3 weeks.

We are struggling to meet our $100/day US budget. We will be camping wherever possible. Our dumpy backpacker accomodation is $60NZ, which is like $42US. Gas looks like about $5/gallon. Hopefully once we get out of Auckland prices will come down...

Look who's driving!