New Zealand!

[Short and sweet, sorry no pictures, and apparently no formatting]

Hello from New Zealand!!

We arrived this morning after a 12 hour flight on the best airline we’ve ever flown, Air New Zealand. I highly recommend them if you have the option. The flight was actually an hour shorter than predicted, which was nice, and they served 2 nice meals, dinner and breakfast, although at strange hours for our bodies. New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of Eastern time, so in Louisville it might be 9pm on Thursday but here it’s Friday at 3pm. I’m not sure how the jet lag will affect me tomorrow…

We arrived in Auckland then took a bus from the airport to a small town, then were picked up by our first WWOOF host family, so we are now at their house. We’ve taken a tour of their 16 acres and met a lot of their animals including 2 dogs, 2 cats, cows, 4 alpacas, chickens, horse, and 2 sheep. Seems like a fun place to be for a week or so! The family members we have met so far are super nice and welcoming too. Thanks, Heath and Joanna, for hosting us and introducing us to your beautiful country!

We were able to sit next to each other on the plane, which we weren’t planning on, and Adam had an aisle seat which he was very excited to have. He also let them know this was part of our honeymoon trip, so the flight crew brought us up to First Class for a nice breakfast with champagne, smoothies, and tasty food. Air New Zealand is currently the nicest and most thoughtful airline I have ever flown. They even wrote us a congratulations card! Really cool, and a big thanks to Adam for conversing with people as he does.

We are here after spending a wonderful few days in Los Angeles with some of my cousins. We didn’t get to visit everyone we hoped to, but we’ll be back in March and hope to visit more then too. My sister flew out from Cincinnati also, so we got a few more days of fun before heading our separate ways on Wednesday. We ate well, laughed a lot, and watched some movies with Ryan, Bryce, and their crew. Dave made some Skyline too, which is always a tasty reminder of my Cincinnati roots.

Ryan introduced us to some of his favorite eating out spots, like Cici’s and Coral Tree Cafe for brunch, Salsa and Beer for Mexican, sushi, and of course some In’N’Out Burger. We visited the Getty Museum, the Santa Monica farmer’s market for omelettes, and just got to spend some good time with my cousins, Ryan, Marni, Dave, and Meghan, plus managed to hit a few breweries (I can honestly say we didn’t push those, as someone else did all the research).

Traveling is wonderful. I’m hopeful we’ll have some pictures to post soon. Life is good in New Zealand!